Islington Greens have stepped up their campaign to make Sustainable Urban Drainage Schemes (SUDS) a test of planning approvals in the Borough. Experts now agree that the UK is going to have to get used to patterns of sharp, heavy bursts of rainfall that risk overcharging our sewer network if the rain has nowhere else to go but the drains. The ultimate consequence is sewage backing up in people’s homes and gardens. At the February LBI Council meeting, the Lib Dems refused to commit to a Green request to make all relevant planning approvals conditional on maximising SUDS in the development.

By creating permeable surfaces as part of new developments rather than blindly slapping down concrete and tarmac, more rain water can be absorbed naturally. Grass verges and micro-parks can also act as traffic calmers and generally improve the street landscape. The fact that Islington has the lowest amount of open space per capita in London makesSUDS all the more critical.

Green activists collected over 650 signatures one Saturday morning in Late November on a petition calling for a pedestrian crossing at the notorious junction of Highbury Hill and Highbury Grove.

One local resident told us that when she had approached the council about the need for a crossing, the response was “we’ll look into it when there’s been an accident…”. Hmmm…

There are about half a dozen dodgy crossings in Highbury alone, and over the next few weeks, IGP activists will be canvassing residents’ opinions on all of them.

At December’s Council meeting, the ruling Lib Dems rejected Katie’s proposal for a blanket 20mph speed limit across Islington. They said that the current situation, where individual streets could apply for this status, was sufficient.

One Lib Dem council executive referred to Katie’s proposal (which would have saved lives and reduced vehicle emissions) as “a stunt” !!! (and of course, their wind turbine on the Town Hall isn’t…)

The street by street process is time consuming (recent experience is five years for approval) and costly (signs at the entrance and exit points for each street). We are not giving up and will continue to fight for this one….

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We have a stall at the Islington Farmer’s Market (Behind the Town Hall on Upper st). The Market runs from 10 am-2pm every sunday and we are there most weeks (other festivals and events permitting). On the 4th Sunday of every month we operate a battery recycling scheme - bring along your dud batteries to our stall and we’ll get them to the Recycling Centre on Hornsey st.