Leo Andrade is forced to travel 70 miles just to see her son.

He has a severe form of autism and lives in full-time residential care. Leo has told the Gazette time and again of her heartache at their separation, and how much easier she’d find it if he could be moved closer to her in Islington.

Leo’s son Stephen may be ineligible for the accommodation that will be built in Windsor Street following last week’s planning decision. But for every one of the 130 families whose loved ones are in care outside the borough, there will be a similar story.

I find it telling that all 137 of the carers consulted about the new build gave it their support, despite objectors’ insistence they knew what was best for people with learning disabilities.

Add to that the fact the development will replace underused garages in a borough where space is at such a premium that any development would likely attract complaints from neighbours, and the fact that there is a demonstrable need for what has been proposed, and it seems clear the council has made the right decision – unpopular though I know it is with some.

• The weather last week was atrocious, so I have to hand it to the wonderful people at Food For All who dished out hundreds of plates of hot food to the homeless in King’s Cross (p4).

It is shameful that people in inner London in 2018 need to queue in the snow if they want a hot meal. Homelessness and poverty aren’t inevitable: they are the result of cruel or incompetent policies that have drained social housing and cash from the welfare system. The government and Mayor of London helping Islington build council homes on the Holloway Prison site won’t solve that crisis, but it’d be a step in the right direction.