A new Ludicrous Road Closure FaceBook group, has been set up in response to a hostile takeover of the original group.
The entire admin on the old group has now been replaced by members of the WeAreIslington FB Group and the name of the group changed.
No one should be under any illusion about how this came about.
Restructuring was never discussed nor was there a democratic process to decide who should be part of the admin team.
Democracy is something that the previous admin held in high regard. This should ring alarm bells for all involved.
Whilst we have no argument with members of the WeAreIslington Facebook group, we are still firmly in dispute about the funds that were paid into Jody Graber’s GoFundMe page.
He has since given back £600 of residents donations but is adamant that the remaining £500 was donated, after he declared he was running for council and was therefore entitled to it.
We strongly disagree, and so do many of the residents who donated.
At the same time another two people left the committee group and aligned themselves with WeAreIslington. They also ceased to be admins on the LRC FB group, with one exception....Steve Kenton.
Steve is involved in the WeAreIslington group but because he wasn’t an admin on WeAreIslington we saw no harm in him remaining as an admin at LRC. It was a matter of trust.
Soon after the LRC Facebook group became riddled with complaints from Facebook about content. Several posts a day were removed for violating Facebook‘s terms and conditions.
There was never an explanation, nor was there any indication of who was reporting the posts.
It became abundantly clear that sabotage was at play.
This all came to a head yesterday when Steve Kenton took it upon himself to take control of the group and remove five administrators from LRC, and replace them with members of the newly formed WeAreIslington group.
Steve is not an Islington resident. He claims the changes were made by consensus, by which he means it was supported by members of WeAreIslington group who have never been part of LRC’s committee, or at the very least, not for the best part of two months.
I’m sure you will understand, this is malignant behaviour in the extreme. Regardless of the reasons, no one has the right to undermine the hard work that has been put in collectively, or disregard the people that have come together to tackle the issues that are affecting each and everyone of us. It’s totally unethical.
The group is currently archived due to the backlash.
Derek, the creator of LRC - who’s had to take a few days out on compassionate grounds - is devastated. Please support him as he has been tireless in his fight against these persecutory policies.
Moving forward, we cannot comment on the progress made by other groups, but recently we’ve written again to the council informing them that they have a duty of care to respond to the ever increasing number of concerns.
With that, we have submitted testimonials from residents, local businesses and trades people who have commercial interests in the area.
We have set up a second group to run alongside the committee that consists of business people (specifically those that have been financially impacted), people who have legal experience, and potential candidates to challenge the council at the next election.
The flash demo group – the brain child of RV - is thriving and serves as a brilliant platform to network, gather testimonials, speak to residents at street level, and importantly, deprive the council of revenue.
The micro-protests have proven to be indispensable in conveying our message to people who don’t fully understand what is happening.
We are in touch with someone who can hopefully facilitate a meeting with Grant Shapps, from the Dept. of Transport.
This is vital as pro-LTN Lobbyists are all over the government at the moment. We desperately need to redress the balance.
We are currently in touch with Ealing, Hackney, Bow, Greenwich, Lambeth, and Camden with a view to organising a pan-London demonstration in Whitehall.
It really is madness at the moment with all that is going on but we need to persist with a multilayered response, and try and tackle these injustices from all sides.
FINALLY! Restrictions are easing in London after the 2nd December and we need to show the council that we have most definitely NOT gone away.
Therefore, we are calling a demonstration outside Islington Town Hall on SATURDAY 12th December.
Let’s show the powers that be that we are bigger, stronger, and more unified than ever.
LRC
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