Working for Highbury East

Network Rail have distributed letters to houses near Highbury & Islington and Canonbury stations about the next stage of work on the London Overground line from Stratford to Gospel Oak.  The line will now be completely closed from 20 February until 31 May to allow work to take place 7 days a week between 8am and 10pm while they renew the track, install overhead power lines and upgrade the signalling system. They will also be lengthening platforms and installing lifts at some stations including Canonbury and Highbury & Islington.  Corsica Street will continue to be one of the access points they use to get to the tracks.

 All this will cause disruption for residents.  The council has imposed conditions on the work to keep noise to a minimum and Terry, John, Julie and Laura will be monitoring the situation carefully - if you are having problems because of the works, you should let Network Rail know direct on 08457 11 41 41, but please let us know too by emailing us at councillors@highburyeast.org.uk and we will take it up with the council and with Network Rail management.

You can find further details of the works on the Network Rail website.  Details of replacement buses and other alternative transport are in a TfL leaflet which can be viewed online by clicking here.

Network Rail are also organising a drop-in session at which residents can have their questions about the works answered.  This will take place next Wednesday, 10th February between 4.30 and 7.30pm at the Laycock Professional Development Centre on Laycock Street (also accessible from Highbury Station Road)

Demolition of the derilict old works depot in the north west corner of Highbury Fields near Framfield Road is now scheduled for the spring, which will add 300 square metres of park space for residents to enjoy.  After consultation with local residents about how they would like the new area to look, the council has produced an artist’s impression of the corner, which is reproduced above.  There will be landscaped areas with new planting and shrubs, a path to join onto the existing footways, new lighting (in the same style as the existing Victorian-style lamps on Highbury Terrace) and a secure fence to protect the back gardens of houses on the north side of Framfield Road.

Local Highbury East councillors Terry Stacy, John Gilbert and Laura Willoughby are proud that the LibDem-run council has brought about this extension to the useable area of the Fields, a significant step towards implementing the community backed “Vision for Highbury Fields” and towards investing the £1million programme of improvements for the area.

The campaign is gaining pace to save the Accident and Emergency Department from the Government’s proposals to axe it.  Locally Julie, John and Terry have been calling on residents asking them to sign our petition to stop the A&E department being moved to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. 

Meanwhile, the wider the campaign organised by the Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition is also gathering steam.  A demonstration to show people’s anger at the closure plans is being organised on Saturday 27 February starting at noon on Highbury Fields and marching up the Holloway Road past the hospital and on to  a rally in Whittington Park.  Julie, Terry and John will be supporting the demonstration: further details and a flyer can be found here and more information on the Coalition and the events it is organising can be accessed from their homepage here.

If you would like to sign our petition and haven’t already done so, you can sign online by clicking here

The Metropolitan Police have released crime figures for 2009 which show a significant reduction in the levels of burglary, criminal damage, drugs offences and robbery. There has been a growth in fraud and forgery and small increases in theft and violence against the person. The figures also show that Highbury is one of the safer parts of Islington with our crime rates below the borough average for all categories of offence except fraud and forgery. With that same exception, we are also below the average for the whole Metropolitan Police area in all categories of crime.  You can read the detailed findings on the Metropolitan Police website by clicking here.  The detailed figures for the whole borough are here.

Much of this improvement is down to the continued hard work of our local Safer Neighbourhoods Team whose latest newsletter can be accessed from the Council’s website by clicking here.  The Safer Neighbourhood Panel, which brings together the Safer Neighbourhood Team, residents and councillors, has set burglary,  drugs, bike theft and car crime as the priority areas for the Team to crack down on.  We will be reviewing these priorities with the police in the light of the latest statistics.  If you have views on whether the priorities should stay the same or be changed, please let us know by posting a comment on this page or by emailing us at councillors@highburyeast.org.uk.

Islington’s Liberal Democrat councillors called an emergency debate on the threat the the future of Accident and Emergency Services at the Whittington Hospital.

If you haven’t already, please sign our petition at:
www.savethewhittington.com

The snow and cold aren’t going to stop lollipop lady Janet Wooden, pictured here, from turning up for duty this morning at the busy crossing across Blackstock Road at the junction of Rivesdale Road and Conewood Street on the way to both St John’s and St Joan of Arc Primary Schools.  Janet isn’t alone: Council gritters were out yesterday evening and early this morning making sure main roads throughout Highbury and the rest of Islington remain ice free.  Once the main roads have been done priority is given to gritting roads around hospitals, ambulance stations and at least one access from the main road network to all communities.  All schools throughout Highbury were open this morning, although five schools elsewhere in the borough are closed because of the bad weather.

The Council also topped up the yellow salt bins on street corners around the borough last night. Residents are welcome to help themselves to salt and grit from these bins to keep the pathways around their own homes ice free.  There are dozens of these bins around the streets of Highbury - you can find them from the Interactive maps link on the Council’s website by clicking here and then clicking on ‘Winter Gritting’ on the right hand side of the screen and ticking the box marked ‘Salt Bins’.

You can also find the latest information about how the weather is affecting Islington and what the council is doing to help from Islington Council’s website by clicking here.