Islington Tribune - News: MP slams 'madness' of tenants' dilema as alubs face the chop

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Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER
Published: 28 December 2007

Jeremy Corbyn

MP slams ‘madness’ of tenants’ dilemma as clubs face the chop

Petitioners campaign to save five youth projects

A MAJOR row broke out this week after five youth clubs were threatened with closure in an area with high rates of crime and anti-social behaviour.
Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn said he was “appalled” that the clubs in the Archway area will all run out of funding in March, at the end of the financial year, unless the decision is revoked.
It comes in a year when youth workers appealed for better funding in the wake of Martin Dinnegan murder just a mile away in Holloway.
Tenants from the north area (Holland Walk) housing panel voted for cuts of £27,000 to the youth clubs – to spend instead on urgent safety measures like CCTV, security doors and anti-graffiti paint.
A petition was going around local estates calling for the youth clubs not to be closed.
Mr Corbyn said: “If we’ve learned nothing in 2007 it is the absolute priority of funding youth work in our borough to ensure our kids have somewhere safe for recreation and socialisation.
“This is a mad situation where tenants’ panels are being forced to choose between graffiti and youth clubs.”
Junction ward councillor Janet Burgess, a member of the independent commission on young people and safety was angry at Islington Council not offering to take over the funding of the clubs.
She added: “Here we are encouraging our youth to get off the streets and attend clubs when we are planning to close five of them. It means hundreds of young people will have nothing to do in the evening and could be tempted to indulge in the kind of anti-social activities that can make people’s lives quite miserable.”
The youth projects which face the axe are Elthorne and Miranda in Hillrise ward, the Partnership Project on Brecknock estate, the Ivinghoe on the Lower Saxonbury estate and McCall House, all in St George’s ward.
Cllr Burgess said she was not blaming the tenants for wanting to inflict the cuts. “The tenants have their own priorities and you have to respect their judgment.
“But we’re talking about £27,000 which is peanuts to Islington Council. The council must provide the funding because once projects like these are closed it is very difficult to start them up again.”
Hillrise Lib Dem Cllr Greg Foxsmith – who chairs the independent commission – insisted that a final decision to cut the youth clubs has yet to be made.
He said: “We can I understand why the tenants voted as they did last time but I don’t think it will go through. There is a huge petition going around the estates asking the tenant reps to think again.
“The decision has to be ratified at next month’s (January) panel and I’m hoping it will be rejected.
“If the cuts are agreed then I believe that the council will make good the money – but I think that’s a shame because it will mean they will have to cut it from somewhere else.”
Cllr Foxsmith said that Islington has a good reputation for youth club provision which is well funded. “There is no way that I or other members of the council would let it be cut.”

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