Dear Neighbours
I hope you are all well and enjoying the increase in daylight creeping steadily upon us. Those of us with school-age children are also looking forward to step one of lockdown easing, with Back to School scheduled tomorrow. This last week has been a flurry of activity to get school uniforms together, disinfect school bags after finding months-old mouldy lunch remains 🤦🏻♀️, get clippers out to tidy up straggly hair and generally get things ship-shape again.
Looking back, it's been aaages since our last newsletter. So here's a canter through what's been happening in Barnsbury & St Mary's LTN World for the last couple of months.
First... 🥁🥁🥁 #lowtrafficislington has launched! 💚 Green hearts 💚 all over the place, love it.
Briefly, what happened was that we realised that we were working really well with the other LTN groups in Islington, as well as pooling intersecting interests with Islington Clean Air Parents, #inspiringsustainableIslington, Cycle Islington, Islington Living Streets and others. So we gathered the LTN groups under a single banner. Turns out Hackney went the same way. GO LTNs! (We have Hackney-website-envy, hopefully we'll be able to pick their brains on that one...)
Our launch featured in Islington Gazette and Islington Tribune. We're properly chuffed and really energised to continue to bang the drum. We focusing on getting LTN facts on NextDoor and twitter, and we have also (very recently!) set up an instagram handle to post lovely pictures of inspirational #lowtrafficislington.
So anytime you tweet, NextDoor, fb, instagram, other social stuff, make sure you use #lowtrafficislington, 💚 our posts, and put a 💚 green heart 💚 in your window to spread the love!
Printable versions of window hearts are here:
[BLUE BACKGROUND] / [WHITE BACKGROUND] / [OUTLINE TO COLOUR IN]
A couple of weeks back, we attended a kick-off zoom with a group of Offord Road neighbours, who have come together to work on Offord-Road-specific issues. The Offord Road cut-through is a particular blight, and the group's current key concern is Deliveroo's planning application for a "dark kitchen", which is likely to massively increase the volume of motorbike delivery traffic from the Deliveroo unit on the Roman Way Industrial Estate.
Cllr Convery has engaged with the group on this issue and, in a communication to them, he writes:
To ensure the planning authority can fully assess the application and the impact of this use on neighbours, it would really help if residents are able to submit comments to the planning service particularly in relation to any nuisance caused by delivery mopeds accessing the site. Deliveroo has arranged for mopeds to access the site from Roman Way entrance rather than Offord Rd. If there are still adverse noise consequences elsewhere or evidence of non-compliance (for example using the Offord Street entrance) it would be very helpful for the planning authority to be advised about this. The case officer is Owen Griffiths (owen.griffiths@islington.gov.uk)
Email us if you are on Offord Road or otherwise affected by traffic on that road, and we'll put you in touch with that group.
As an aside, we found this directory of companies and tradespeople who deliver by bike - would be good to hear if anyone has used it in N1.
Now that the weather is getting a bit more outdoorsy, you might want to try Cycle Islington's plans for a map to encourage people to get out and enjoy the People Friendly Streets (PFS) and help them with some fresh eyes and wheels on the route to give feedback. If anyone wants to give it a go, Cycle Islington would welcome comments! It's through the PFS zones which have already been implemented but there are some major roads to cross so take care.
Start where you want, the route takes you from Highbury Fields, through Canonbury West and East into St Peter's before a saunter through Amwell, along the new segregated cycle Lanes on Liverpool Road, before returning to Highbury. It's about 4 miles so small legs should manage it. We are currently adding some notes about decent pubs and cafes and playgrounds .... can't wait until we have a small amount of liberty to enjoy such excursions!
We're keeping up our attendance at the various Ward, Council and Scrutiny meetings to make sure we're keeping up to date on all things LTN and prodding the Council to answer our neighbours' questions. You might also be interested in ICAP's meeting tomorrow to get inspiration for greening Islington, reach out to ICAP directly if that's your thing.
On the subject of feedback to the Council, you might have noticed that the Commonplace feedback site is now closed, having served its purpose. We strongly encourage further feedback on the Council's survey sites:
St Peter's; Highbury West; Highbury Fields; Canonbury East; Canonbury West; Clerkenwell Green; Amwell
If you live, walk, wheel, cycle or work in, travel in or through, or even just like any of these areas (for me they all apply! 💚) get your clicking fingers out and support the LTN roll-out so far. This is what we want, NOW, in Barnsbury & St Mary's. We'll be banging on about the Council surveys some more in future. You have been warned.
I think that's about it for this newsletter, so if you have read this far and still want more, I suggest a good place to start is our latest news round-up.
As ever, let us know what else you want to hear about. And if you want to get involved, the more the merrier; please email us on barnsburystmarys@gmail.com.
All our best
Low Traffic Barnsbury & St Mary's
