Download Islington - Issue 8 - Islington Council

Your complaints
Islington Council has recently updated
its approach to dealing with customers’
concerns and complaints.
The changes are designed to encourage staff
to sort out a customer’s problem when it is
first brought to their attention. This is good
customer care and also means that the
formal complaints procedure is properly used
as a last resort.
Eye eye, let’s be
having you
If the problem can’t be sorted out or the
customer makes it clear that they want to
make a formal complaint, then the new
procedure clearly sets out the stages involved
and how long they will take. It aims to be
clear and quick and as easy as possible for
customers to use.
The complaints leaflet is available in large
print, Braille and on audiotape. The council
also has a translation and interpreting service.
You can get copies of the new complaints
form from council offices, libraries, leisure
centres and voluntary organisations.
And of course we also want our customers to
tell us when we get it right. So please let
council staff know when you think they’ve
done a good job. It’s your views that matter.
Want to work with children?
Tomorrow's World
"EYES FOR ISLINGTON" – the council’s
community volunteer initiative aimed at
improving the environment – has already
136 new recruits. And we want more.
This project aims to help council officers
tackle the problems of fly tipping, dog
fouling, graffiti and vandalism through early
and precise reporting.
The volunteer "Eyes" will patrol the streets,
identify problems and report them via a
phone hotline. It is hoped to expand the
scheme to schools later this year.
There is a flexible time commitment for
volunteers – you can start by giving just
20 minutes per week.
✆
Could
you use your eyes
for Islington?
Please call Pat or Mia on
020 7527 2023.
Just deserts
A 6' 4'' motorist who kicked and punched a
5' 2'' Islington Council parking attendant in an
unprovoked attack was sentenced to 240
hours community service and ordered to pay
a £750 fine to his victim.
Michael Farrow, a forty year-old businessman
of Fairfield Close, North Finchley, N12, was
Sign of the times
A LARGE ILLEGAL advertising hoarding
was taken down recently from the corner of
Liverpool Road and Bromfield Street, N1.
The council's conservation group and
planning enforcement team act together to
remove up to 40 illegal hoardings each year
from conservation areas and busy routes like
Seven Sisters Road and Holloway Road.
Advertisers wanting to place hoardings in the
borough must make an advertisement
application to the planning department.
In the case of the Liverpool Road hoarding,
✆
Any
the removal provided an additional benefit –
as the wood was recycled for a community
building project.
resident concerned about the legality of a local hoarding
– or an advertiser wishing to make an application – should contact
Mike McGill on 020 7527 2150.
convicted of assaulting the 46 year old
woman in Duncan Street at the junction with
Duncan Terrace, N1 on 3 January 2001 when
she asked him to move his Jaguar from a
restricted street.
She had to be taken by ambulance to
University College Hospital in Euston and was
off work for several weeks as a result of her
injuries.
In sentencing, District Judge Dennis Lynch
said that this was a vicious and cowardly
attack that was inexcusable. He told Mr
Farrow: "You should be under no illusion that
you are exceedingly lucky."
The judge warned Mr Farrow that if he was
late or failed to turn up for his community
service, he would be brought back to court
and would be given a custodial sentence.
Islington Council's children’s information
service (CIS) wants to recruit more
childcare workers to the borough.
People out and about, catching a bus or
doing their weekly shop will see the
posters on lamp posts, in bus shelters
and inside buses with the message
‘Work with children in Islington’.
Since January a message aimed at
raising the number of childcare
workers has been on the back of till
receipts from Safeway’s on Holloway
Road and Sainsbury’s at the Angel.
The service has also launched a
comprehensive information pack.
This explains the types of childcare
work, what qualifications are needed,
how to get started and how to get a job.
Everyone is subject to police checks.
The CIS advertises vacancies via a
regular childcare jobs list and offers a
free job advertising service to all
nurseries, playgroups and play or youth
schemes.
Staff can also advise on childcare
arrangements and have information on
everything available for children and
young people in Islington.
✆
Anyone interested in working
in a nursery or playgroup with
pre-school aged children, or
becoming a childminder and
working from home, or
working with older children
in a play or youth scheme,
can call the CIS on
020 7527 5959.
Barbara
Scotland
from CIS
Kirsty Banks
11, Kasia
Banks 9 from
Canonbury
School
Amy Smith, Truda White, and Nathan Ranger
help Philippa open Islington’s first CLC
Philippa Forrester of TV’s Tomorrow’s World
opened Islington's first City Learning Centre
(CLC) at Highbury Grove school. The centre is
a state of the art building in the school
grounds and has 70 computers, a video
conference facility and a media editing suite.
New media technology is already providing
many new careers and it will be even more
important in the future. Giving our youngsters
the chance to work in this field will put them in
a great position to take up job opportunities.
Rob Gill, Assistant Headteacher and CLC
manager said: "Highbury Grove School is
delighted to have Islington's first CLC in its
grounds. The centre will be able to link with
other Islington schools and is open to the
community, as well as local primary schools.
This means that it provides excellent
opportunities for Islington's young people.
They are able to learn leading edge
technology skills, how to do animation and
filming and how to use websites effectively
and efficiently, as well as use information and
communications technology as a learning
resource to improve their achievements in the
whole school curriculum."
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