Please tell Islington Council not to ruin Highbury Fields with new buildings!

[TriangleMum]

It seems that the architects the council have appointed to design new buildings for Highbury Fields are planning to replace the Oasis cafe and One O'Clock club buildings with one big new building right in the middle of the lovely grass play area. They are currently running a public consultation on the plans and have included options for rebuilding in the current locations.

www.islington.gov.uk/consultations/highbury-fields-consultation

I am really upset to see that the architects' recommended option (Option 4) is to build in the middle of the café lawn, losing nearly half of the enclosed dog-free play space and blocking the beautiful views of the park and Highbury Terrace. Instead of being a large, relaxed and beautiful place for families there would only be a small play lawn hemmed in by the café building and tennis courts. There are also issues with lots of blind spots for parents supervising young kids - instead of relaxing with a cup of tea while watching the kids play mums will potentially have to follow toddlers around in order to not lose them!

Deadline for responses is 4pm on Monday 12th March - they are asking for a list of their five concept options in your order of preference plus any additional feedback on any of the options they've presented. The email address for consultation responses is [email protected]

Here's how I rated them (Options 1 and 2 keep the current location of the buildings, Options 3, 4 and 5 all involve building on the play lawn.)

1 (favourite) = Option 1
2 = Option 2
3 = Option 5
4 = Option 4
5 (least favourite) = Option 3

Please do let them know your views - Oasis cafe is such a lovely space for families and the One O'Clock club garden is great too... would be such a shame if they spent lots of our taxes on ruining those spaces!

[LittleVenetian]

Hi there. I completely agree about preserving space for families. The fields can sadly become overrun with dogs and barbecues and this area is a necessary haven, particularly with very small children.

But do you really want to preserve the status quo? The buildings are in terrible condition and the Oasis Café is terribly mediocre, no doubt because it has no competition and is allowed to be.

At the very least, surely Option 2 would be better than Option 1?

Option 5 is the only one that really concerns me as it would appear to involve the biggest loss of dog-free space.

If only there was an option to ban dogs and barbecues altogether!

I will probably vote 3, 4, 2, 5, 1. Given that we seem to have the same concerns and interests, it is odd that we seem to have almost entirely opposing views about the best order of proposals!