Challenge is to tackle the inequalities all around us

Published: 6 May, 2011

• I AM writing to thank the many hundreds of Islington people who have attended one or more of the seven packed public meetings held around the borough by the Fairness Commission. 

The fairness agenda that Islington Council and its partners are committed to clearly resonates with people. That’s important, because to make Islington a fairer place by reducing poverty and inequality in the areas that matter most to people’s life chances isn’t something the local authority can do on its own: the whole community has to be involved. 

Those of us who live here know there’s more to Islington than the swanky boutiques of Upper Street. But it may surprise even local residents to realise that half of all our children in the borough – the 14th most deprived in England – are growing up in poverty. 

So, we’ve spent a year taking a long, hard look at the many inequalities that divide our community, listening to residents as well as outside experts and pushing ourselves to come up with radical ways to close the gap. 

As a result, the commission’s final report, debated in public last week, makes 20 concrete recommendations for change. 

The task now is to make these recommendations real, on the ground, where it counts. With the political will to make it happen, and the people of the borough alongside us, we do not intend to blow this chance.  

CLLR ANDY HULL 
Labour vice-chair, Islington Fairness Commission

• THE fact that 45 per cent of children in Islington live in poverty is something that should mortify the entire political collective (Rich and poor divided... even to the grave, April 29).

One way to help reduce this number would be to target spending at the right people – the poor folks – not on expensive Town Hall management systems, which serve nothing but themselves. 

How many jobs for locals could be created from the public cash squandered on overpaid Town Hall officials?

What will change as a result of the Fairness Commission? Pensioners have got nothing out of this.

MG McELLIGOTT 
Amwell Street, EC1

• Islington Green Party welcomes the draft report of the Fairness Commission and congratulates the Labour council on commissioning it and all the work that has gone into its production. 

Its findings are certainly stark; how sad that we should find ourselves in this situation after so long under a Labour government. Now under this coalition it’s going to be even harder to get us back on the right track of equality and a fair chance for everyone in Islington. 

However, we are pleased to see some real positive proposals, such as the London Living Wage, something Green London Assembly members and councillors have been promoting for years.

The Green Party has long been promoting positive proposals to tackle inequality and recognises the complex relationships between issues such as housing, transport, green space and mental and physical health. 

With its decisions on issues such as Roamer parking and the NCH development, the Labour council has yet to convince us that it really ‘gets it’, but we hope to see some improvement following this report. 

We will continue to campaign to ensure the issues covered in this report are addressed and, like Andy Hull, we don’t want to see this important piece of work as “just another report that gathers dust on the shelf”. 

CAROLINE ALLEN 
Islington Green Party