Dear Neighbours
I hope you're having a lovely long weekend! For a lunchtime treat last week I went for a walk up the New River Path, past the lush leafy streets of Canonbury, all beautifully quiet and green thanks to People Friendly Streets, and felt inspired to share my joy of living in our awesome borough by sending out this newsletter.
First order of business is a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who emailed our Councillors in response to our Take Action message a couple of weeks ago, all of you who have posted and 'liked' on the Commonplace feedback site, and all of you who to continue to email, post and 'like' to take action, take back our streets. We need to make sure the Council hears our support, loud and clear - rope in your relatives, friends and colleagues, this is our community!
So much has happened since our last newsletter, let me bring you up to speed.
Steven, a wheelchair user, kindly agreed to speak to Simon about how People Friendly Streets will vastly improve his quality of life. We're delighted to help make his voice heard.
Some of our neighbours are asking us great questions about how People Friendly Streets will change our communities for the better - so we're working on a series of FAQs delving into various topics in more depth. Our first FAQ post speaks to the benefits for local businesses in this vibrant borough. Please feel free to share with your local business owners - pubs, stalls, local shops, etc. We've done that with a few businesses on our streets and they are impressed and enthusiastic.
People Friendly Streets have been implemented in Canonbury East, Clerkenwell will finally be implemented following consultation in 2017 and, hot off the press on Friday, Canonbury West follows close on its heels - thank you Islington Council team! Remember to write and tell them our appreciation, and check out our neighbouring Canonbury group online.
Last but not least, THANK YOU to the Islington Gazette for hosting a brilliant Q&A for People Friendly Streets on Wednesday 26 August with Councillor Rowena Champion, Islington Council’s executive member for environment and transport, leader Councillor Richard Watts, and Martijn Cooijmans, Head of Strategic Projects & Transport Planning. There was some lively side chat as well as excellent discussion and comments from the panel - and what was clear from start to finish was the massive majority in favour of People Friendly Streets.
As ever, let us know what else you want to hear about, by emailing us on barnsburystmarys@gmail.com.
All our best
Barnsbury & St Mary's Neighbourhood Group
(aka Lucy, Simon, Rachael, Richenda, John, Kevin, Fran, Joseph)