Spend this town centre cash quickly or you risk losing it

Published: 21 May 2010

• I HOPE the new (old) Labour administration at the Town Hall in its rush to make changes to the council budget it agreed to only three months ago will be quick to finalise plans for the £2million government money the Lib Dems won for improving Archway town centre.

It’s an opportunity to do up the area by Archway Tube and gyratory to suit local people, and not at the behest of private developers with no genuine stake in the area.

Don’t let the old Tories – Eric Pickles and company, back in the Department for Communities and Local Government – claw back Archway’s slice of the pie. If the Town Hall doesn’t move fast in the battle for diminishing resources, you can be certain Mr Pickles will.

Many people dread the return to the old stand-off between Tories in central government and Labour locally, with nothing but harm for local people and local services. Show you back residents above ideological games and make sure Archway doesn’t lose this money, for the sake of residents, businesses and jobs.

Cllr Ursula Woolley
Lib Dem, Junction ward

• CONGRATULATIONS on your coverage of the general and borough elections (May 7 and May 14).

As a Labour Party member, it was most heartening to see your front page with a bold picture of Emily Thornberry.

And, last week, a full account and details of Cllr Catherine West heading a Labour team with a bold manifesto. It is also grand to see Councillor Mouna Hamitouche as mayor-elect – once again, a first for Islington, an Algerian-born mayor.

London has led the way for progressive policies, but with this ugly pairing of a Con-Lib Dem government a difficult period lies ahead, and I wish them all the very best.

Pat Haynes
Mildmay Road, N1

• AFTER reading Bridget Fox and Terry Stacy in the Tribune (May 14) I would say: yes, Ms Fox, your vote may have gone up, but so did everyone’s, due to the high turnout. Mr Stacy, please don’t keep an eye on the new Labour council to make sure it keeps up your standards, as it is because of your standards that you are no longer council leader.

I am sure the new council will ensure we don’t have to put up with the agony of the Lib Dems’ non-Decent Homes scheme.

Yes, the Labour council will make mistakes while in the process of rectifying the Lib Dems’ ones, but if it does one thing to keep in power for the foreseeable future it will give the gift to Islington residents that they want... scrapping Homes for Islington.

Simon Motherwell
Popham Street, N1

• DESPITE not winning a seat on the council, the Conservatives in Islington appear to be the main opposition to Labour.  

I would like to thank the electorate for giving the Conservatives their vote in Canonbury, leading to a 20 per cent swing in the local elections, when the national average was five per cent.  

I would also like to thank Jan Hart, head of public protection at the council, for organising remedial work at the home of council tenant Kathleen Seward after her bathroom was damage by sub-contractors during the Decent Homes work. 

Mrs Seward has waited for four-and-a-half years for the leaking from her lavatory and bath to cease, the flaking cement on the floor to be surfaced and the “never seen before” peeling paint on walls to be redecorated.  

I am on first-name terms with the head of repairs at Homes for Islington because I am frequently writing to him with so many cases of disrepair. Where have all the Lib Dems gone?

Oriel Hutchinson
Organising secretary at Islington Conservative Federation and Canonbury ward representative

• THE Lib Dems lost the council election because they spent their eight years in power giving themselves excessive salaries and selling council stock. Honest, hard-working people had just had enough. 

Peter Thomas
Bardolph Road, N7

• WELL done to Emily Thornberry and Jeremy Corbyn on increasing their majorities. As hard-working MPs, it would have been a great loss had they lost their seats. Bridget Fox blaming the Conservatives for Labour’s victory strikes me as incredible. She may need to look at her own campaign – constant bombardment with leaflets and letters from former Conservative candidates did her no favours. Nor did the unpopularity of Lib Dems on the council. 

Paul Johnson
Grange Grove, N1

• I WOULD like to thank Holloway voters, the great Lib Dem team and all others who kindly supported me. I enjoyed every minute of the campaign.

Commiserations to the other losing candidates and a warm thank-you to all departing councillors, executive members and Green councillor Katie Dawson, who have done so much for their community. 

Congratulations to all winning candidates.

David Kelly
Drovers Way, N7