22 July 2026 , 18:47
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The pedestrian crossing in question is located on Thorpedale Road, Finsbury Park.
Green councillor Jonathan Ward said: “We have a pedestrian crossing that arrives in a quiet street that costs £100,000. Residents were absolutely gobsmacked. It’s not a busy road.”
A £100,000 figure was revealed in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), but the council confirmed the actual cost is £131,000 as the works included other upgrades.
“We’ve got hundreds of places like this across Islington. Can we afford to spend £131,000 each time? It’s good that there’s a facility for people to cross the road safely but it would have been cheaper to put some plants in, rather than a new pavement,” Cllr Ward told the LDRS.
He added: “We just want to make sure there’s imagination and value for money in public works.”
Labour Cllr Paul Convery, who said similar crossings in the borough had cost around £15,000, told the service he was “startled” by the cost.
He also warned over the possibility of hidden costs “lurking in the background”.
Defending the development, Cllr Rowena Champion, Executive Member for Climate, Environment and Transport, said: “We widened pavements, carried out drainage improvements, installed a raised crossing to help reduce vehicle speeds, upgraded street lighting and Belisha beacons, and added high-friction surfacing on the approach to the crossing.”
The crossing was installed after following concerns from residents that motorists were driving down the road too fast to cut through traffic, posing a risk to children going to school.
The total spend on the crossing was £131,000, the council confirmed, adding that street safety of the project delivered “much more” than the crossing alone.
It comes as vehicles are set to be banned from 200 more roads outside schools at certain times under plans to boost walking in London.
Transport for London (TfL) said the measure, to be implemented by 2030, is aimed at making walking the “first choice of travel to school for even more Londoners”.
It will involve 200 roads being assigned School Streets, which have restrictions on vehicles at school drop-off and pick-up times.
More than 800 roads across London had that status as of the end of April last year, according to TfL.
The transport body said School Streets help “improve air quality and reduce road danger by reducing motor traffic and providing additional space”.TfL’s walking and wheeling action plan also featured an aim of installing 1,000 new zebra or signalised pedestrian crossings by 2031.
Politics Editor