WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE United-Kingdom uk - news journal UPDATE - (en) UK, ACG: Islington Council plans to destroy football pitches (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The Labour council in Islington, north London, plans to demolish four

football pitches at Finsbury Leisure Centre and build three high rise
towers, one of which could be 20 stories high. ---- Islington Council
plans on replacing the pitches with rooftop facilities, on a much
smaller scale. The pitches have been used by local people for over 50
years, and offer one of a few green spaces in one of the most densely
populated boroughs in London. ---- A local campaign, EC1 Voices has
reacted to the scheme by calling for it to be shrunk and for the four
pitches to remain on the ground. They have been joined by local football
hero Les Ferdinand. He was quoted in the London Standard as saying "When
I was a child, I was part of a gang but luckily[for me], this was a
football gang. Instead of searching for trouble and carrying knives, we
played with each other, and carried a football. And all that was
possible because there was a space for us to do it."

Plans show a seven-storey, eight-storey and twenty-storey block may be
built on the site.

Eva Guerra of EC1 Voices, speaking to the Islington Tribune, said
"Building over a leisure and sports infrastructure is trying to solve a
very complex problem by putting a plaster over a massive crack." She
said that the council had made no major changes to their scheme since
the last consultation in January, noting that "This is setting a
precedent that they can build over absolutely everything without any
regard for the community" and that the council has totally ignored the
concerns of the EC1 Voices campaign.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2024/11/29/islington-council-plans-to-destroy-football-pitches/
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