09
Apr

Message From Our Chair

Message from Councillor Clare Potter, Chair of Finsbury Park Trust

“2020-21 has been another difficult year with many challenges. We were able to meet these challenges with the continued support of our tenants, local stakeholders and Councils in Islington, Haringey and Hackney. Our main source of income continues to be rental and room hire.

During the past year, we also saw changes to our Board of Trustees. We lost Councillor Daniel Stone who stood down as the Haringey council representative, Isabel Tinsley (Islington resident), who was our Company Secretary and Susie Barson, the Hackney resident representative. Three new trustees joined us; Liz Hemmings re-joined as the Hackney resident representative, Councillor Alex Worrell became the Haringey council representative and Nadine Finch, the Islington resident representative. We would like to thank our outgoing Trustees for all their endeavours and welcome new Trustees who bring new skills and perspectives to our board.

We continue to offer support to Finsbury Park and Stroud Green Neighbourhood Forum and wish to explore opportunities to support the young Pioneers (MyPlaceFinsPark) to continue their work in providing a voice for young people and their communities. We have exciting new projects to look forward to in 2023 – the Garden project with a small grant from Islington Council (Local Initiatives Fund), and the Food distribution project to address food poverty. We are pleased to report that the kitchen refurbishment works have been completed, and we are awaiting the outcome of a grant application under the cost of living crisis to continue with the full poverty project, and also re-invigorating our Volunteer and Community outreach programme.

We express our gratitude to Islington Council for awarding us a grant of £1,500 to replace old fluorescent lights with LED lights as part of energy savings measures. We have not been able to replace all the old lights but will continue with the scheme during the next two years. In addition, we will be seeking funding options to develop our staff team and carry out essential building works, working with our tenants and partners to drive positive impactful measures and make a difference in the lives of residents, workers and businesses in the Finsbury Park area.”

 

Clare Potter
Chair of Finsbury Park Trust
(Councillor for Brownswood Ward)
London Borough of Hackney