Escape from the everyday in the heart of N5
Prianka Mahanty, 11 December 2025.
Gillespie Park is a wild, but calm, stretch of the city squeezed between railway lines and housing estates. The article celebrates its contribution to living here and illustrates how nature can bring to life unused land. This might be former railway sidings as in Gillespie Park or empty stub streets as elsewhere.
Retrofitting heritage homes
Chris Procter, 16 October 2025.
Confusing and loose planning guidance have inhibited residents from taking climate actions by retrofitting their homes, especially in conservation areas (covering about half of Islington) and listed buildings. The Council has acted on this after years of campaigning by this and other groups (summarised in the article) and apparent false starts: it has adopted a new supplementary planning document (and revoked an old one), issued its Retrofit Handbook, and devised documents for the new Poets Corner Conservation Area that might be models for other conservation areas. These are all welcome, even if they do not introduce all of the certainty and simplicity that is desirable.
What scorecards say this year
Robert Milne, 14 August 2025.
The Council Climate Action Scorecard, which appears every two years, has this year ranked Islington ahead of all other ‘single tier’ councils in the UK. However, in each part of the Scorecard for some actions Islington has received poor marks by comparison with the leaders. The article looks at three of the parts (‘biodiversity’, ‘collaboration and engagement’ and ‘planning and land use’) to see where Islington might act more effectively. It also glances at ‘transport’, where this year again the London Healthy Streets Scorecard ranks Islington ahead of the other London councils (except for the City of London); it, too, identifies potential improvements.
How two countries recycle
Youxi Pan, 19 June 2025.
Rates of recycling at source can be increased by having a unified strategy, not by leaving local authorities to muddle through and endure hostility from the press and politicians. Such a strategy could be based on coherent national standards, consistent school courses, and simple incentive schemes (such as crediting cards with points at waste-in-the-slot machines).
Rachel Reeves’ bad decision
Caz Royds, 13 February 2025.
Rachel Reeves could create several incentives to making aviation greener: she could introduce frequent flyer levies, aviation fuel taxes, private jet landing surcharges, or limits on short-haul flights. Instead she is backing a runway largely intended to make more space for internal flights; she is assuming that sustainable aviation fuels and electric planes will arrive quickly enough and cheaply enough to let green targets be met, apparently without extra incentives.
What scorecards can tell us
Robert Milne, 26 September 2024.
The London Healthy Streets Scorecard assesses councils in London according to actions affecting streets. It rates Islington more highly than does the Council Climate Action Scorecard, which covers that ground and much else besides. Overall rank orders mean little when the scores are very close together, but individual scores on particular topics can be informative. The article delves into some related to streets.
The climate denier in us all
Robert Tollemache, 1 August 2024.
The article looks at why people brush aside the contributions of their own actions to climate change. They have many and varied reasons: they might deny the reality of climate change, assert the inevitability of climate change, fear being seen as extremists or have jobs needing frequent flights. Everyone is afflicted by similar thoughts to some extent.
Creativity in green spaces
Dorothy Boswell, 30 May 2024.
The article points out that the Islington in Bloom competition is for anyone making an area greener and more beautiful. The “area” is not necessarily a large public space: it could be a pocket park, a community garden, a window balcony or a tree pit. All these can lift the spirits of people passing by, as well as of those tending to them.
Cutting plastic waste
Caz Royds, 28 March 2024
In the covid pandemic, disposable crockery, cutlery and glassware were used in the belief that they would reduce the risk of infection. Since then caterers have continued thoughtlessly to provide them. A petition (discussed in the article) urges following the lead of France by banning single-use plastic packaging for customers eating in restaurants, cafés. bars and pubs.
What Islington could do better about climate change
Ben Griffith, 25 January 2024
The Council Climate Action Scorecard assesses councils throughout the UK according to implemented policies for climate change. The article recognises that for several of these Islington compares favourably with other councils but there remain some in which it could do better: biodiversity is below average, and housing retrofitting and waste recycling are problematic.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in homes
Robert Milne, 14 September 2023.
The Council can control its own housing stock, but retrofitting even just that needs much more funding than is currently available. The energy efficiency obligations are very weak on other landlords and non-existent on owner occupiers. The article considers what is needed most in getting housing owners, whether the Council, social landlords, private landlords or occupiers, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Increasing biodiversity in Islington
Dorothy Boswell, 13 July 2023.
The Biodiversity Action Plan of the Council concentrates on its work in public parks and council estates. However, this work is complemented by voluntary actions that range from seeding tree pits to running community gardens. These are celebrated in the Islington in Bloom competition, the rules for which have been rewritten by volunteers to favour drought-resistant planting and wildlife habitat development. The article describes how biodiversity is being encouraged through these public and private actions.
Building a resilient Islington
Andy Love, 11 May 2023.
Islington is already home to several grass roots initiatives and businesses developing the green economy. It can go further, with, for example, programmes designed to ensure that there are greener jobs, less waste and collaborative working. The article points to some of the current activities and future possibilities.
Safeguarding the future
David Twine, 9 March 2023.
Thinking about the future for grandchildren was the initial inspiration for the author to join a climate action group in helping the Council, through constructive challenge and input, to build a net zero carbon Islington. The article mentions three proposals by the group on this: arrangements for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from housing without complex planning approval processes, trials of housing retrofitting in six areas of the borough, and effective uses of volunteer skills for enhancing the efforts of the Council.
Islington Environmental Alliance 