Dear Neighbours
So, we are finally past our local council elections! On the LTN front (admittedly a narrow focus given the many critical issues affecting our borough), I'm happy that we'll have continuity with Labour winning an overwhelming majority in the borough. As Simon points out in Real action wins votes:
It's clear that voters either really liked these schemes or thought there were more important issues to be concerned with.
I'm also personally delighted that Caroline Russell and Kate Pothalingam had such success. I love their passion and desire to bring about positive change. (I must stress - this is my opinion, not speaking for our apolitical group.)
We now move to the next phase of the campaign to implement traffic reduction measures across our borough - the Engagement & Design phase. As a reminder:
After St Mary's Church, there will be no more LTNs implemented under the ETO process 😭. Instead, there will be a "clean sheet" engagement exercise in each area which we're told will take 18 months from discussions starting to any interventions.
In the lead-up to the elections, you may have thought that electioneering was all that was going on. But no! our intrepid group was busy planning the next stage in our campaign.
We think that the future Barnsbury & St Mary's LTN covers the area between Upper Street/Holloway Road and the Cally (East to West), and between the Piccadilly train line at Hornsey Street and Pentonville Road (North to South). Here's a handy (speculative) map:
Actually, we're having trouble knowing what to call our LTN area, because part of the old St Mary's ward now has a LTN implemented under an ETO (subject to consultation like the others), and our area includes part of the new Laycock ward, part of the new St Mary's and St James' ward, as well as small bits of Caledonian ward and Holloway ward. It's the Barnsbury, St Mary's & St James', Laycock and Others LTN - snappy, that certainly rolls off the tongue! Perhaps Barnsbury LTN for short? We're going to have a brilliant time discussing names at our next group meeting. I'll bring the cocktails 🍹🍸.
So, back to our campaign: the day after the election results came in, our steadfast army of leafleteers set out with 3,000 leaflets to drop in the letterboxes of people living on heavily-trafficked roads in the Barnsbury, St Mary's and St James', Laycock and Others area (yeah, that name...).
The distribution is not quite finished but already responses are coming in! If you put a Green Heart in your window, or you see that someone else has, please send us a photo.
The point is to make sure everyone knows that the Council is about to begin an Engagement & Design process for the Barnsbury LTN, to which we are all invited.
And, responses to the leaflet will help us put fellow supporters in touch with like-minded neighbours on their same street. Our neighbours on Cloudesley Place have already got their act together and had a letter published in the Islington Gazette! Love it! 🙌🏼💚🙌🏼
On that note, we wish you a lovely weekend!
Low Traffic Barnsbury & St Mary's
