Caroline Russell, Green Party councillor in Highbury since 2014, has announced that she will not be standing for re-election at next year’s local elections. Caroline will have served 3 terms, for a total of 12 years. She will continue to serve on the London Assembly.

Islington Green Party has selected Dr Talia Hussain to stand in Highbury in 2026. Talia is a designer, researcher, consultant and entrepreneur, specialising in (un)sustainability and social impact in the garment industry. She has a PhD from Loughborough University and an MBA from Imperial College, London. She is an active community volunteer, campaigning for people-friendly streets – particularly chairing a local charity to help set up resident-led street associations.

Cllr Caroline Russell said “It has been the honour of my life to serve my local community. Working with residents, councillors can and do make a real difference to people’s lives, and it’s been a joy to help our community, tenants’ and residents’ groups and my neighbours.

“I will have been a councillor for 12 years in 2026. After the Green Party’s brilliant local election results up and down the country last week, this is the right moment to let a new generation of voices come up in Islington. I will be stepping back from the council to focus on my role in the London Assembly, but also to work hard to deliver more Green councillors than ever at the next local elections, in Islington and across London.”

Talia Hussain added “I’m really grateful to Green Party members for selecting me to run in Highbury. I’m lucky to have been working with Benali, Ernestas and Caroline for a decade now – helping with both community and council campaigns. Caroline’s will be huge shoes to fill but I promise to bring the same hardworking and focused spirit to the Town Hall and the local community that she has brought every day of the week.”

“The next local elections promise to be another big shift. Last week’s local election results showed how unhappy and disappointed voters are with Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. I believe people in Islington want to see constructive solutions to issues like housing and reducing emissions. I’ll be working hard, alongside the rest of Islington Greens, to provide that positive vision for the borough.”

Caroline was elected by an eight vote margin in 2014, in an election where the Lib Dems were wiped out of the council and the Labour Party won every other seat. For eight years Caroline served as the only opposition councillor, working hard to hold the Labour administration to account. This was until 2022 when Cllr Benali Hamdache and Cllr Ernestas Jegorovas-Armstrong were elected to join her in Highbury ward. 

Some of Caroline’s successful achievements as a councillor to date include:

• Achieving (last year) a fairer council tax policy by proposing budget amendments for many years so the least well off in the borough are not asked to pay bills they can’t afford,
• Pushing for a just approach to collecting council debts from residents, avoiding council summons and bailiffs,
• Lobbying to make it always cheaper to keep a bike in a council hangar than to park a fossil fuelled car in the borough, and for heavier and more polluting cars to pay higher parking fees,
• Supporting older people campaigning for more public toilets and to save day centre facilities,
• Raising awareness about the dangers of air pollution in the borough, and winning better policies on delivering clean air,
• Championing policies and changes to make it safer to walk, wheel and cycle around the borough, from new zebra crossings to accessible pavements,
• Persuading the council to reopen cemeteries during the pandemic, to allow residents to grieve, 
• Working with young people across the borough, winning support for the council to declare a Climate Emergency, via a cross-party motion with a binding promise to deliver net zero by 2030,
• Campaigning for council meetings to be livestreamed, to allow for greater participation in local democracy,
• Exposing the council’s installation of thousands of non-fire safe doors across Islington’s estates,
• Consistently opposing the building of the new Edmonton incinerator and pushing the council to reduce overall waste,
• Working constructively, cross-party on council committees and resident casework.

The post Caroline Russell not re-standing at next local elections appeared first on Islington Green Party.

Carne Ross is the Green Party spokesperson for global solidarity, and is standing for Islington South and Finsbury. He said: “It’s time to end politics as usual, in Islington and nationally.  I want to put power in everyone’s hands, and end our ‘elective dictatorship’ where all the decisions that matter are taken by a tiny few in Westminster. The people of Islington know their circumstances best, and they should be in charge. Their needs will be my only priority if I’m elected.”

As the party’s candidate for Islington North, Sheridan Kates wants to put discussions of the economy front and centre: “Too often our government hides behind claims that ‘there’s no magical money tree’ and ‘we need to make hard decisions’ to justify underfunding crucial public services. The economic plans coming from the incoming Labour shadow government are based on continued economic growth, which widens inequality and harms our planet. We need political leaders who understand that we can already find the money, so we should be using it to eradicate poverty and build opportunity and a fairer society in Islington and the whole country.”

Candidates were invited to put themselves forward from the entire member base, and selected using free and fair member voting (including online hustings). 

With the latest polling data showing that Greens are the second most popular political party in both constituencies¹, the opportunity is real to show an incoming Labour government that they must not continue the Tory austerity of the last fourteen years.

Full bios for candidates can be found at https://islington.greenparty.org.uk/2024-ge-candidates.

1: Full polling results:

The post Announcing the 2024 General Election Candidates for Islington appeared first on Islington Green Party.

• Alex Nettle (Green Party): 1095 votes (24.4%)
• Ollie Steadman (Labour Party): 2824 votes (62.8%)
• Rebecca Elisabeth Taylor (Liberal Democrats): 577 votes (12.8%)

Voter turnout: 47.3%. Full details are on on the Islington Council website.

If you’re interested in standing as a councillor in future, come and talk to one of us at a future members meeting (listed on our events page) – we’d love for you to get involved.

The post Hillrise by-election 2024 – Greens build an even stronger second place result appeared first on Islington Green Party.

Find out more about Alex from his bio here, and his announcement post on Twitter.

The post Hillrise by-election update appeared first on Islington Green Party.

Looking back, I’ve found that the first fifty homes I surveyed, in 2008, averaged an energy rating of 57, which was a low D on the A-G, green-to-orange graph readers may be familiar with (similar to the labels you get when you buy an electrical appliance). The last fifty before I retired, on the other hand, averaged 67, which, while an improvement, is still only a D. Just a higher one. We’ve still got a lot to do if we want to achieve net zero carbon targets and make people’s homes affordable to heat!

As it happens, the last survey I carried out was a flat on one of Islington council’s own estates. The flat was on the top floor, so it makes a big difference to the energy performance if the roof above it is insulated or not, and, running the survey through the computer, I could see that if the roof is insulated the flat rates as a C but if not, it’s only a D. Unsurprisingly the leaseholder, who is selling the flat, was keen to know, one way or the other, but, unfortunately, Islington wasn’t able to tell her. The likelihood is it is, because Islington has been pretty good at insulating its estates, over the years. The trouble is it’s been a lot less good at recording what it’s done and where.

The council’s own housing stock is one of the few areas where it has direct control over buildings’ energy performances. If Islington is to achieve its net zero carbon target by 2030, it needs to know urgently what the current energy ratings are for these and what can be done to improve them. Over the years, though, I’ve met dozens of cases where council leaseholders have been unable to get information from their freeholder, undermining the accuracy of their EPCs and so the council’s own route towards Net Zero.

To have any hope of achieving its Net Zero targets, Islington needs accurate data on the energy performance of its existing housing stock. And to get a much better grip on its own information.

Andrew Myer

Islington Green Party

The post Letters to the Papers: Achieving net-zero depends on Islington Council understanding its own housing stock appeared first on Islington Green Party.

Rod Gonggrijp of Crayford Road in Tufnell Park, said the experimental path had confused cyclists who were unsure how to get into it as they approach the Holloway Road junction from Camden Road before joining it on the right side of Seven Sisters Road.

“Asking people to cross the road before the junction at Holloway Road is quite dangerous. I wouldn’t have designed it like that, and of course the whole cycle lane is really built assuming people don’t turn left or right anyway.”

Visit haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/c50-camden-finsbury-park to comment on the new bike route.

The post Have your say on TfL’s new confusing Cycleway 50 appeared first on Islington Green Party.

Because of NHS cuts and lower birth rates there will be a consultation on closing one of the maternity wards. The Green Party is launching a petition to save the services. 

Local Green Councillors are encouraging residents to sign the petition and respond to the consultation. We know how valuable local maternity services are for our community. You can also respond to the NHS consultation too.

Green Councillor for Highbury Benali Hamdache said: “Terrible government cuts are driving this decision. For too long the NHS has been underfunded. But once one of these wards are closed, they’re gone forever. Demographic changes may well be temporary, but reduced services will be forever. Please sign our petition.”

The post Take action to save Islington’s Maternity Services appeared first on Islington Green Party.

The by-election results were as follows:

With 46 of the 55 Camden seats held by Labour already, Lorna said : “Residents saw the value in having opposition councillors to scrutinise the council and hold the administration accountable.”

Lorna added that locally residents were furious about issues like the “poor quality of council housing, rat-running on local roads, and the fact that Camden does not listen to the Highgate community”.

Huge thanks to all the amazing Islington volunteers and helpers who came out to leaflet, door knock, help out on polling day or donate – you really made a difference!

The post Lorna Jane Russell elected in Highgate appeared first on Islington Green Party.

“Oxfam. Save the Children. Médecins Sans Frontières. Action Aid. Amnesty International. War Child.

All over the world humanitarian organisations are calling for a ceasefire. It’s a disgrace that our parliament did not. 
The organisations working on the ground. Trying to save lives. Seeing children die every day. Desperately trying to provide food and water.

They’re calling for a ceasefire. Not more retaliation. Not “humanitarian pauses”. A ceasefire. They’re the experts, not MPs. Why are our lawmakers not listening? 

Of course there are many exemptions. I want to thank the Labour MPs that rebelled. I want to thank the SNP for putting the amendment on the table. I want to thank to Caroline Lucas our Green MP for always standing for peace. The Lib Dems, SDLP and Plaid Cymru too.

Something changed in parliament this week. A crack in the wall. The consensus in there was more war. But we’ve demonstrated the majority out here want peace. We need to keep campaigning. Keep using our voice. We won’t stop pushing for peace and justice.

And it’s time to go further. We should not be complicit. It’s time to stop selling weapons of death to this conflict. It’s time for an arms embargo. When international law is being broken, we should not see British bombs. We cannot and should not help the killing of innocent children

As the leader of the Green group on Islington Council I’ll be bringing a motion to our next full council. On 14th December I’ll be asking our council to back a ceasefire. An arms embargo. To call on our local MPs to stand for peace and justice. I hope you can join me on the Town Hall steps 

These marches have been slandered as hateful. I want to talk about the emotions that actually brought me and I’m sure you all here, and it’s not hate. It’s fear. It’s sadness. It’s being distraught. But it’s also hope. It’s because we can’t tolerate doing nothing. Our hope shines long after your career has died Suella Braverman. 

But it’s not just Suella. This entire Tory government is a disgrace. They’ve tried to clamp down on our free speech. They’ve blindly backed every attack. They’ve done nothing for peace and justice in the 13 years they’ve been in power. 

Instead they’ve ignored the situation. They’ve ignored Gaza being kept as an open air prison camp. More of the West Bank and Jerusalem seized. The far right in power. Lasting peace can only be achieved by pushing for negotiations and dialogue, tor a proper settled peace. Ceasefire is just the first step.

Spain, Portugal, Ireland and France. South Africa and Brazil. The counties calling for ceasefire grows by the day. Rishi Sunak. Keir Stamer. You better start listening.”

The post Councillor Benali Hamdache speaks at the Highbury Peace and Justice Rally for Palestine appeared first on Islington Green Party.

Back in June, Transport for London (TfL) proposed regressive and significant changes to bus services across London.

These proposals would have been devastating for people in Islington as we would have completely lost the number 4 bus. Plans previously included cutting back the 254, 259 and 476 routes, and re-rerouting the 214 so that it would no longer run through the borough.

Every bus route in Islington has been saved – with all proposed changes reversed.

The council, including your Green councillors, quickly agreed on a motion to “Save Islington’s Buses”, calling on the central Government to agree on a funding deal to save TfL’s bus services. We’ve worked cross-party to convince TfL to change their mind.

Greens then took part in the TfL’s consultation and ensured that TfL knew how devastating the proposed changes would be to us.

Help get the news out that the 4 bus is saved and share the news on social media.

The post The 4 is Saved! appeared first on Islington Green Party.