A Holloway Road bar wants to sell alcohol until 2am, and scrutiny reviews a rise in secondary pupils persistently absent. Both meet on Thursday 1 October.
Two Islington Council meetings are scheduled between Saturday 26 September and Friday 2 October. Both are on Thursday 1 October at the Town Hall on Upper Street, and both are open to the public.
This is a quiet week. There are no Executive, Planning Committee or full Council meetings, according to the council’s meetings calendar.
Licensing Sub-Committee B: Thursday 1 October, 6.30pm
Where: Committee Room 4, Town Hall, Upper Street, N1 2UD. Agenda.
What is decided: whether One Eighty One, 181 Holloway Road, N7 8LX, can sell alcohol later. The venue is in Laycock ward.
According to the licensing officer’s report, its licence currently allows alcohol sales from 11am to 11pm every day. The application asks for:
- alcohol until midnight Sunday to Thursday, and until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights
- late-night refreshment for the same extra hours
- opening until 12.30am Sunday to Thursday, and until 2.30am on Friday and Saturday nights
One local resident has objected. The objection says music from DJ nights and listening parties can already be heard inside their home. It also describes customers gathering outside late at night. The applicant has written back proposing a change to its operating schedule.
The police, the council’s noise team and the other responsible authorities made no representations. The report says the venue has held four temporary event notices since 2025 with no issues raised, and no complaints are on record.
Why it is not a formality: the premises sits in the Holloway and Finsbury Park Cumulative Impact Area. Under the council’s licensing policy, that means a presumption of refusal. The committee has to be satisfied there will be no added harm to the area before it can say yes.
Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee: Thursday 1 October, 7pm
Where: Council Chamber, Town Hall, Upper Street. The meeting is webcast. Agenda.
What is on it: reform of support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), a progress report on the children’s workforce, and a 12-month update on school attendance. Scrutiny committees question and recommend; they do not make the final decisions.
The attendance update leads on good news. Provisional attendance across Islington schools for 2025/26 is 92.5%, up from 92.3% a year earlier. In the autumn term, 21.2% of secondary pupils were persistently absent, below the national 21.5%.
The full-year figure goes the other way. The report gives provisional secondary persistent absence for 2025/26 as 27.4%, up from 26.3% the year before. A pupil counts as persistently absent when they miss 10% or more of sessions. The report says absence is increasingly concentrated among pupils with SEND and complex needs.
Other figures in the report:
| Measure | 2024/25 | 2025/26 (provisional) |
|---|---|---|
| Primary attendance | 93.7% | 93.9% |
| Secondary attendance | 90.6% | 90.8% |
| Primary persistent absence | 18.7% | 18.6% |
| Secondary persistent absence | 26.3% | 27.4% |
The council’s attendance mentors, who give one-to-one support in schools, improved attendance in 56% of completed cases, according to a July 2026 evaluation. The programme has been extended to the end of the 2026/27 school year.
What it means for you
- To speak on the Holloway Road application, you needed to have made a representation during the consultation. Anyone can watch, because licensing hearings are held in public.
- To ask a question at scrutiny, the agenda carries a public questions item. Email democracy@islington.gov.uk in advance to find out how.
- If you cannot attend, the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee is webcast, and a link is on the agenda page.
Coming up
Two decisions have just been added to the council’s forward plan:
- Adventure playgrounds. A key decision titled “Adventure Playgrounds: Keeping those insourced inhouse” is due at the Executive on 26 November. It covers spending of more than £500,000. No report has been published yet.
- Asset rationalisation. A key decision with capital implications of more than £1 million is due on 22 October, led by the Executive Member for Finance. No report has been published yet.
We will report both when the papers are out. For past licensing decisions, see our report on September’s alcohol licence hearings.
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