Islington Council

Leader's Diary

Welcome to my online diary! Every day I have the opportunity to do things that make a real difference to our borough, and I want to share some of them with you through this diary.

So, over the coming months I will be writing about some of the things I have been doing – and some of the ways that the council is making a positive difference to life in Islington.

I hope you enjoy reading it!

James Kempton, Leader of the Council

New Year Message

10 January 2008

We recently asked Islington residents to tell us their priorities for the council. A record number of people responded – and we are acting on what you said.

You told us we should do more to improve the environment.

In June we held the country’s first-ever referendum on climate change – on the introduction of green residents’ parking charges. With almost as many people voting as in local elections, there was a clear majority in favour. So we now have a financial incentive to choose a less polluting vehicle.

In another green first, we are working with more than 60 local businesses and organisations helping them to achieve a 15 per cent reduction in their own carbon footprint by 2010. And we’ve established the UK’s first Climate Change Fund, making £3 million available for green projects. More than 1,300 local people have backed it with their own money too – choosing to donate the £20 discount they receive by paying their council tax by direct debit.

Thanks to this fund, residents can apply for money to help install renewable energy systems in their own homes. Solar panels have now been unveiled on the roof of a local school. And, to set the right example, a wind turbine now stands on top of our council offices, generating power for the council’s electric vehicle fleet.

And our Green Living Centre of Upper Street now provides free advice to any resident on how they can save money and help save the planet at the same time.

You told us you were concerned about crime.

Our concern about this issue has been renewed by the tragic death of Nassirudeen Osawe in Upper Street on December 28. Following the stabbing of Martin Dinnegan earlier last year, Islington Council set up a Commission on Young People and Safety to help tackle gang culture. It brings together leading figures from across Islington’s communities – and, crucially, young people themselves. The commission is due to publish its recommendations in March.

I know how concerned residents are about crime and anti-social behaviour. We’re continuing to work closely with the local police– for example by making sure that there are as many police out on the streets as possible. And all the evidence now points to crime falling in Islington.

You told us you want a better education for the children of Islington.

This year saw the opening of two brand new schools. The £7 million New North Community School, the first to be built in Islington for two decades, was barely completed before the hugely oversubscribed St. Mary Magdalene Academy opened its doors in Septembers. And 2008 will see building start on a massive programme to rebuild and refurbish all secondary schools in Islington.

Exam results are up too: this year’s GCSE results were Islington’s best ever – double what they were just a few years ago. No wonder three-quarters of parents are now choosing to send their children to an Islington secondary. I am determined to see this improvement continue.

You told us we need better facilities for older residents.

Serving disabled and older residents will never make the headlines but that has not stopped us pushing hard to make this the best service the council provides to residents. For example, we are one of the best councils in London for supporting people to live in their own homes for as long as they wish to do so. Our adult social care services were recently given the highest possible grade by the independent Commission for Social Care Inspection.  Developing services to give people more choice and independence is a high priority for us in 2008.

You told us more affordable housing is needed across Islington.

One of the biggest challenges we face is housing that local people can afford. Over the past few years we have secured more affordable homes in Islington than in our neighbouring boroughs. But next year we’ll be going further– and building Islington’s first new council houses for decades. I’m particularly proud of being able to help overcrowded families in this way because we’ll be one of the only councils in London who have made the tough decision to find the money to do this.

You told us you wanted us to provide good value for money.

You said that it’s a priority to cut council waste and bureaucracy and keep council tax down. We have pledged to keep Islington’s council tax below the London average, a promise that we intend to keep again in 2008. Not that the government is making it easy for us to achieve this with a below-inflation increase in their grants that make up two-thirds of our budget.

When I became leader of Islington Council in May 2006 I said that I was determined to turn this into a council that really listened to residents, shared the difficult decisions more openly, and acted on people’s concerns and aspirations. I hope you can see that we are making progress.

I am deeply privileged and proud to serve this borough – the place where I was born and where my family have lived for generations. As 2008 begins you have my pledge to listen even harder to residents, working with you to address future challenges and to improve Islington for everyone.

May I wish all residents a happy new year. 

Being a Corporate Parent

23 November 2007

I am sure I am not the only Councillor who got elected without realising that by virtue of being a Councillor I was taking on a special responsibility as a "corporate parent" for children in care.

It's obvious when you think about it that as Councillors and officers of the Council, we have to make sure that children in the care of the local authority are treated as anyone would expect their own children to be treated. Whilst numbers of children in care in Islington have fallen substantially in recent years (actually against the national trend), we still have over 350 children in care at the moment.

On Tuesday night we celebrated the educational achievements of a large number of these children, holding a special dinner for them at the Living Room in Essex Road. It was a great evening of chatting, meeting up with old friends, laughter, with a few speeches from young people and the Mayor. I was really encouraged that the group of young people I sat down to eat with, were all focussed on studying hard, going to University and doing well in their future careers. Islington actually has 38 looked after young people at University and one of the things that has really encouraged this is the £3,000 bursary we give them.

But University isn't the right destination for everybody and we've recently set up a scheme to help young people get into work. It involves on the job training, support and apprenticeships and things like that. It is a fantastic scheme, particularly for young people whose teenage years have been disturbed by going through the care system and therefore they haven't always done as well at school as they would have done without that sort of pressure and emotional upset. It seems obvious really when any parent would use all of their connections to try and make sure their child got the opportunity to do a work placement or get work experience in a business they were involved with or knew about, that the Council should do exactly the same for children that it acts as corporate parent to.

Although it is not rocket science, it seems that we should be feeling really proud of the scheme because not everyone does it.

In fact it has won international recognition and we have been asked to make a presentation of the scheme to the eigth international Looking After Children Conference at Oxford University next Summer. I suspect it was this reason that I and Cllr Ursula Woolley, Lead Member for Children & Young People were filmed for a video about the scheme yesterday.

Tackling Islington's Housing Shortage

16 November 2007

Sometimes it seems like everyone wants to live in Islington! As a result we have a serious shortage of housing, both in the social housing sector, and in privately-owned housing.

I announced earlier this year that we will be building Islington's first new council housing for decades, to help us address the shortage of social housing. I am immensely proud of this initiative – and also that other councils around the country are now planning to do the same!

What has also been on my mind is the large number of obviously empty properties that I see as I go around the borough. I'm told there are as many as 1,000. We've been thinking what we can do to try and help their owners bring these back into use, and be used for housing again - and have decided to introduce grants of up to £85,000 to bring them up to standard, so that they can be used for housing again.

I really hope that this will make a difference. I always prefer the 'carrot' to the 'stick' approach. But if it doesn't, then the council does have powers to force their owners to bring them back into use. And we will use them.

That will be an extreme measure – but when we have such a severe shortage of housing here, we are determined to do whatever we can to make the best use we can of all the homes that are out there.

New Street Environment Wardens Start Work

14 November 2007

This week we have launched the latest part of our programme to make Islington a 'greener, cleaner and safer' place – our Street Environment Wardens.

In their red uniforms they are very visible on the street, and their job is to tackle some of the problems that residents write to me about – with a particular remit to crack down on littering, dumping refuse, dog fouling, graffiti and fly posting.

Residents consistently tell us that one of their highest priorities is making our streets feel cleaner and safer – so I'm delighted that we've been able to put some additional money into these new wardens to help achieve that.

Talking to some of the wardens who have done similar jobs in other boroughs, they have told me that keeping public areas well looked after doesn't just make them look more pleasant – it also helps to increase residents' sense of ownership of a local area, which in turn seems to cut crime. (Some of you may be familiar with the research programme known as Broken Windows which provided some further proof of this)

So the wardens will be doing a lot to improve our borough. Doing their job doesn't always make them popular with people they have to take to task for littering the area – so if you see one of them around, in their red uniforms, do stop and say hallo and thank them for what they're doing.

Birthday Breakfasts

13 November 2007

Islington Council is a large organisation, employing directly more 3,000 people, all of whom are working for local residents every day - some front of house, some behind the scenes.

I'm very conscious that every time a resident talks to one of our staff they represent the whole council – but that many of our staff don't often meet councillors.

So every month I invite about a dozen staff whose birthday falls that month, to come and have breakfast in my office. We talk about what the council is doing, what they're doing, what I'm doing, and it's an opportunity for staff to raise any concerns that they have. I have found this an invaluable way to get an insight into many areas of what the council does, and I hope the staff who've come have also found out a bit more about how I see the council.

Last week I had breakfast with this month's birthdays and had a typically informative morning!

King's Place

8 November 2007

Tuesday was my King's Cross day for this week!

In the morning I paid another visit to the Kings Place Arts Project to see how the building is coming on. It is a really exciting project especially for someone like me who plays the flute, clarinet and piano (or at least used to before politics took over my life!).

This is a key part of the regeneration of the whole King's Cross area which is under way. It is a major new arts venue for London, incorporating two concert halls, gallery space, and offices for the Guardian newspaper and others.

But what sets it apart for me is its vision to reach out and engage all parts of its local community, not only those who might visit concert halls often. Their hope, and mine, is that it will be for the west of the borough what the St Lukes is for the south for it - with two resident orchestras (the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the London Sinfonietta).

Cllr Ursula Woolley (lead councillor for children) who was with me was very interested to hear that straight after our visit Peter Millican, the man behind the development, was going up the road to Robert Blair primary school to see the video the pupils have made about the new building. They have been involved in the project right through its development – and some of the pupils' drawings of it, and a model, were in my office in the Town Hall over the summer.

When it opens fully King's Place should be, like the London Symphony Orchestra's St Luke's, a wonderful blend of community arts with a commercial venue and music-making at the highest international level.

St Pancras

8 November 2007

Later in the day I was at St Pancras International station for its official re-opening by the Queen. It really has been an incredible transformation of that extraordinary Victorian building, which now looks amazing. What would our nineteenth-century ancestors who built it have thought of the idea that you could leave it and be in central Paris two hours later!

Its opening to Eurostar trains from next week will have an impact on Islington, in bringing more tourists to our borough – and as a natural European, I am pleased for us to have as many direct links as we can with the rest of Europe.

But as part of the renaissance of the trains, it is also of course a very green way to travel abroad – and since we are doing so much to raise the profile of protecting the environment in Islington, I'm glad that they're doing the same.

In fact I have met the management of Eurostar to talk to them about this and other projects where we can work together – and I hope there will be some more news on this in due course.

Cracking Down on Blue Badge Fraud

5 November 2007

You've seen it, I've seen it, we've all seen it. People with blue disabled parking badges in their cars, who clearly don't have any need for one.

This makes all of us cross – and so as a council we are cracking down on people who fraudulently use blue badges. As a result of action we have taken, this week a Mr Islam was fined almost £1,000 by magistrates at Highbury Court for using a blue badge that he claimed a friend had given him.

Please do help us to crack down on this abuse by letting us know of abuses – you can report it to Contact Islington on 020 7527 2000 or now to a new email address: parkingfraud@islington.gov.uk

Local History

Last week I visited Martin Banham and the Local History Collection at Finsbury Library. The walls of their room are covered with old maps of the borough and pictures from it – and going there always helps to put everything we're doing here in 2007 into a long historical context!

I was particularly pleased to find a picture of Kossuth addressing a rally in Copenhagen Fields in 1851. As a historian I studied Kossuth, who was a great Hungarian revolutionary, so I was glad to see that he was honoured in Islington.

The local history centre (and of course the library it is part of) are a great local resource – do go and take a look!

Budget

5 November 2007

Every year the council agrees a budget which spends hundreds of millions of pounds on services to local people. These services are provided for you, the borough's residents – so please do tell us what you think we should be spending this money on!

You can find more information under budget consultation - including an online questionnaire to tell us what you think. We have made Listening to Islington our highest priority as a council – so please do let us listen to your views!

Keeping in touch

31 October 2007

To help residents keep in touch with the latest news about what the council is doing, we've launched a service to provide a monthly update from the council, by email.

If you'd like to receive it, please do sign up e-Bulletin. The council won't give your email address out to any other organisation.

What the Council Does

22 October 2007

For many residents, the council are just the people that come round every week to collect rubbish and recycling, with maybe a bit of cleaning the streets too.

We do do that – and increasingly well. Islington's recycling rate, for instance, has shot up in recent years. But the council also does a lot, lot more.

We, together with our partner CEA@Islington run more than 60 primary, secondary and special schools across Islington.

We, together with our partner Homes for Islington provide 23,000 homes for local people.

We also provide care for young and older people who need it, as well as a whole range of other services from leisure centres (with our partner Aquaterra Leisure) to libraries.

All this is done by a council which is elected by and accountable to you – the residents of Islington.

As Leader of the council I have the privileged position of overseeing what your council does for you – and I hope you'll enjoy reading about some of the things that the council is doing.

Saving the Planet

22 October 2007

This week the council's Executive approved the latest group of projects to be funded by our climate change fund. Tackling climate change is a job for all of us, and so I am glad that we are able to support a range of projects around the borough that are doing that.

The latest group are a range of renewable energy technologies – i.e. ways of generating power without emitting carbon.

The excellent North Islington Nursery in Finsbury Park is currently extending its services to become a Children's Centre, and it will include solar thermal panels in its new building – harnessing the power of the sun to provide some of its heating needs.

Grafton primary school near the Nag's Head are planning to install 'photovoltaic panels' on a new school building – effectively converting sunlight into electricity. And they will also be using it to help teach children about renewable technologies.

The Factory Children's Centre is also installing photovoltaic (PV) cells – and the Mayville Community Centre in Mildmay is going one better, turning their building into a model low carbon building, and aiming to reduce their carbon emissions by 84%. They are installing PV cells, a solar thermal system, and ground source heat pumps, heating their building from heat drawn from the ground rather than powered by electricity.

Buildings like the Mayville Centre point the way to the future for us all in finding renewable sources of energy. While many people are still denying that renewable energy has anything serious to offer us – groups like this are just going ahead and doing it!

Islington's Climate Change Fund is the first of its kind anywhere in the country, and I'm delighted that it's able to support such groundbreaking projects which are leading the way in tackling climate change.

Facebook

22 October 2007

I'm now on Facebook – so if you are too, please do sign up to be one of my 'friends'!