Co-hosted by Islington Living Streets and Cycle Islington
Monday 16 April 2018, 6:30pm-8:30pm
At Christ Church Highbury, 155 Highbury Grove, N5 1SA.
Post event update
We emailed candidates these three questions in advance:
- The mayor is inviting ambitious bids for Liveable Neighbourhood funding, with grants available of up to 10 million pounds. Which area of the borough would you target for a bid, and what changes would you make there to transform conditions for pedestrians and cyclists in the area?
- Islington suffers from very poor air quality and high levels of childhood obesity and inactivity. By the time they leave primary school, 1 in 4 of Islington’s children are already clinically obese. A School Streets scheme would restrict motor vehicle access during school drop-off and pick-up hours. This reduces pollution, congestion and road danger and creates a more pleasant environment to encourage walking and cycling to school. Hackney plans to roll out 17 school streets by 2022. Will you commit to beat this?
- The Mayor of London’s transport strategy aims to reduce total London traffic by 10-15% by 2041. Creating low-traffic neighbourhoods and cutting off rat-runs are ways of achieving this and also reducing air pollution and creating routes which are safe and inviting for walking and cycling. What policies will you implement to support this? Which roads or areas will you prioritise for intervention.
Audio
Play/download high quality, 32MB, audio podcast of the whole event. At the start, candidates outlined the key points in their transport manifesto that address public health and air pollution. However, the podcast starts in the middle of the first candidates speech, sorry Ed (McGuiness, the Conservative candidate).
Media coverage
From Islington Gazette’s James Morris:
- Islington healthy streets hustings: Audience none the wiser after toothless panel debate (we don’t quite agree)
- Islington elections: Conservatives make astonishing pledge to relocate primary schools on main roads