Islington Council

There are 23 Liberal Democrat councillors in the London Borough of Islington and the Liberal Democrats have run the Council since January 2000.The Council is run by the Leader of the Council and an Executive of made up of elected Councillors. Major decisions, such as the budget, are made by meetings of the full council and other councillors have the important role of scrutinising the decisions made by the Executive.

The Liberal Democrats have also decided to give power to Area Committees to take decision making closer to the people. If you want to know what the Liberal Democrats plan to do for Islington Council over the next few years you should read our Manifesto for 2006 local elections: http://www.libdems.org.uk/party/policy/manifestolist.html

More information about how the Liberal Democrats are running Islington can be found on the Islington Council website: http://www.islington.gov.uk/

Islington Council Executive

The direction of Islington Council is set by an executive of eight councillors together with the Leader of the council. Each councillor on the executive is responsible for a particular area of council activity:

Leader of Islington Council

Terry Stacy.

Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Communities, Skills, and Business

Lucy Watt.

Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care

Ursula Woolley.

Executive Member for Leisure and Equalities

Ruth Polling.

Executive Member for Finance

John Gilbert.

Executive Member for Children & Young People

Paula Belford.

Executive Member for Housing and Community Safety

Barbara Smith.

Executive Member for Transport and the Environment

Greg Foxsmith.

Area Committees

Area committees are a flagship policy of the Liberal Democrats, bringing decision making down to the lowest level. There are four area committees, each committee consisting of the twelve ward councillors for the area. The area committees look at local service delivery issues as well as deciding local planning and licensing applications.

Our aim is over time to devolve as much decision making to these committees as possible, we have started with planning and licensing and also the committee makes formal recommendations to the executive on local environmental matters such as parking and roads.

The meetings are public and we have made them less structured that the stuffy old council meetings by allowing resident participation. The committees meet in the area at a local school or community centre. They have so far been a great success and we hope that as they continue to build a community spirit in the area, involve more local people in shaping decision making and be an important way for the community to be involved in the council.

Find out what your Lib Dem councillors are doing for your area.