I came across this charity which is doing very important and relevant work. If you want to find out more, please have a look at their website or contact them.

"Refugees At Home, a small charity, working largely in London but across the UK, has enabled hosting for four years now. It currently has about 120 people hosted every night and has found refugees somewhere safe, warm and dry to sleep for more…

This is the text of an email that I sent to all members of the Court of Common Council on 27 January:

SUMMARY

During the last 15 months, the Standards Committee has done a 170 degree turn on its dispensations policy, ending with the decision at its meeting last Friday to abandon the restriction on granting dispensations to vote “only in exceptional circumstances”, and to require democracy to be taken into account when granting such…

You will be aware from the Evening Standard articles on 16 and 17 December and local television news that Beech Street tunnel will become the UK’s first zero emission street (ZES), with an 18 month trial starting in March.

What you may not be aware of, since there has been no consultation, are the consequences for us residents of Golden Lane Estate and adjacent residential areas.

What is the project?

Only emission free vehicles will be allowed through…

For the last five months, three resident councillors have been trying to obtain general “dispensations” from the City’s standards committee to speak and vote on behalf of their constituents on matters which affect those councillors no more than any of their constituents. In any other local authority, where 100% of the councillors are elected by residents, it would be taken for granted that councillors speak and vote on matters affecting those who elected them. But in the City, where…

Hello

I'm Hayley Cotton, a local designer that would like to create a projection installation on the Estate for UNESCO Science Day and I would love to hear your feedback.

Click on the image above to view…

There follows an exchange of e-mails between Judith Barnes, a co-opted (i.e. unelected) member of the City Corporation’s Standards Committee, and Councillor Mark Bostock, who is one of the three elected members applying for a “general" dispensation to speak and vote on issues affecting his Cripplegate electorate.  You can see from this exchange what your elected members are faced with in trying to get the same level of representation for residents of the City as residents get in all…

Good morning folks!

We are a small, local charity called Survival International across the way from Golden Lane estate on Goswell road. Some of you may already be familiar as we've been here since 2001 (the charity itself is 50 years old!). Please do drop into our office shop - we're friendly bunch selling a selection of stunning Christmas cards, a beautiful calendar and other gifty bits. 

We take no government funding so we rely heavily on the generosity of…

TEXT OF AN EMAIL FROM COUNCILLOR HARROWER TO THE COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL ON 8 OCTOBER 2019 

The Standards Committee fails again….

The Standards Committee, at its meeting last Friday, did not abandon its policy of granting residential councillors dispensations to vote “only in exceptional circumstances", and will thus continue to disenfranchise the City’s residential electorate. It also failed to hold a proper vote…

From the Barbican Association and Golden Lane Estate Residents’ Association

3 October 2019

Dear Members of the Standards Committee

We are disappointed not to have had a response to, or acknowledgement of, our letter to your committee of 9 August.

We have read the papers on the Committee’s agenda for 4 October (including the minutes of the dispensations subcommittees) and we would just like to repeat our dismay,…

I, like many other residents of the estate have been truly appalled by the treatment that our resident Councillor Sue Pearson was subjected to last year (2018)  because she spoke and voted at a meeting to prevent the planning permission for the COLPAI development to be delegated to Islington only.

The Monday morning meeting to vote on handing over planning powers was announced on the Friday before in what our local newspaper…

Dear Resident

Concern over standards in the City Corporation is increasing as some members of the Standards Committee devise increasingly bizarre excuses to resist the erosion of its power over residential councillors.

For example, in the Dispensations Sub-Committee meeting on 4 June, a "co-opted" (meaning…

At the meeting of the Court of Common Council in July, Alderman Ian Luder put a “question” to the Chair of the Standards Committee that attempted to cast a slur on my character by insinuating that I was engaging in some kind of criminal activity.

His “question” was as follows:

“Could the Chairman of the Standards Committee confirm the rumours that a Member has made a claim for rights of light arising from the construction of COLPAI. If so, has the claim been settled, and…

Cllr Graeme Harrower (member for the business ward of Bassishaw) has long been concerned about the anti-resident bias of the Standards Committee. He supported me through the Standards Hearing that I had to endure last year (2018) and is a persistent advocate for residents' rights and Standards Committee reform. Below his latest emails to the Court of Common Council on the matter.

EMAIL FROM CLLR HARROWER THE COURT OF…

Extract of email sent on 15 July 2019 from Councillor Sue Pearson to the Standards Committee

"The current dispensations policy – which claims to “maintain public confidence” - was demolished three months ago when, in a petition, residents demonstrated that the policy had the opposite effect. The public’s view of an acceptable dispensations policy was recently articulated in four identical requests for general dispensations which the Dispensations Sub-Committee…

For more background information:

Wording of the petition: Disenfranchisement of local residents

Response to the petition from Chair of the Standards Committee

Subsequent…

In April the Court of Common Council was presented with a petition signed by over 1,100 City residents declaring 'no confidence' in the City's standards regime.The key issue being that resident Councillors are not able to represent their constituents on matters which affect their constituents no less than themselves without obtaining ‘dispensations’ that are…

Print by Rebecca Whitelaw

yesnomaybe_print is a fine art printmaking group formed on the City Lit Advanced Fine Art Printmaking Course 2018-19.

Coming from a range of backgrounds including architecture, fine art, illustration, and marketing and communications, the group draws from…