Islington Boat Club is a unique and essential part of the community, especially for young people.  Many people were worried about its future when it was forced to close last year. This is part of the reason why St Peters and Canalside Councillors  agreed to allocate funding secured from nearby property developments to help repair the clubhouse, and relaunch activities at the club. This work was due to St Peter’s and Canalside Labour Councillor Martin Klute, who played a pivotal role in assembling local support for the reopening, restructuring the board of trustees, and worked tirelessly with council staff to secure new legal agreements with the club, as well as financial and project management support. Without this support, the club would have been unable to reopen.

Speaking about the re-opening, Councillor Klute said, “I am delighted to see young people back enjoying the water and learning self-reliance and safety skills, but there is still lots of work to do to extend outreach to more young people, to build up a paying customer base to help with cross-funding the club, and to complete the renovation of the building. We also need to get more local people involved in the running of the club.”

This is all part of Islington Labour’s ongoing commitment to make Islington a more active borough, and healthier place to live and work.