Islington Council chiefs planning a New Year package of rent rises and service cuts were asking tenants: “How shall we share out the misery?”

Bosses wanted to know whether the borough’s 40,000 council tenants would prefer:

– £2 a week on rent and sweeping cuts in services, or...

– £5 a week on rent and fewer cuts to services.

Barnsbury Estate rep George Belless said: “We are being told to support cuts which will create unemployment. We should accept no cuts whatsover.

In better news, parents, pupils and teachers had won their battle to save Islington’s sixth forms.

Education minister Kenneth Baker threw out plans to replace all the borough’s sixth forms with one 1,500-place college.

The announcement was a victory for Margaret Mann, head of Highbury Fields School, and Lawrie Norcross, former head of Highbury Grove. They led a long campaign against the government’s plans, backed by 30,000 petition signatures.