I would like to clarify the situation around bicycle storage and on-street parking facilities in Islington, in response to your recent story (“Council to go for bike hangar funds after nurse ‘spoke’ out”, December 29), writes Cllr Claudia Webbe, Islington’s environment and transport leader.

At last month’s full council meeting I was pleased to reassure community nurse Ciara Murphy that Islington has more than 2,000 cycle stands across the borough for the public to use, and is willing to install more on pavements – as long as it leaves enough space for pedestrians to get by.

The same goes for the council’s own housing estates, and we can certainly look at installing more stands near health centres and GP surgeries for the public to use too. This should help health visitors and others working here to get round on two wheels.

Scene: Highbury Fields, 12.20pm, December 24. Dog has just defecated on grass, writes D Thomas, Bryantwood Road, Holloway.

Me to dog owner: “Hello, perhaps you could pick that up. I understand it is dangerous in the event that it gets on the hands of small children.”

Dog owner to me: “Why don’t you f*** off?”

Apart from the sad lack of Christmas cheer, it is particularly disappointing that some individuals are so anti-social and ignorant.

Perhaps a good New Year resolution would be for all such dog-owners to Google the word “toxocariasis”.

A New Year resolution to desist from using offensive language would also be very welcome!

St Mary’s councillors are supporting a vital project that offers shelter to homeless people in Islington in the cold winter months’ write Islington St Mary’s ward Cllrs Angela Picknell and Nurullah Turan.

The Margins cold weather shelter project, which offers homeless people a lifeline between January and March, runs in conjunction with CARIS (Christian Action and Response in Society) Islington.

Seven churches in the borough take turns to provide shelter on a different night to provide week-round cover.

We have contributed over £2,300 to Margins through Islington Council’s Local Initiative Fund, a small grants scheme.

At Margins, up to 17 street sleepers are catered for and have access to a range of support: warm beds, good food, clothing, laundry facilities, showers, medical support, books, games, television and, perhaps most important of all, the company of others.

The project relies on 35 dedicated volunteers, some of whom will be from the wider community and others who are ex-clients.

We are proud to be supporting Margins again this year. It’s impossible to be content knowing that, in the cold post-Christmas days, people are on the streets, exposed and uncared for. The project offers a vital lifeline to homeless people who are particularly at risk at such a cold time of year.

Many of the people who rely on Margins have nowhere else to turn to and, by the end of each season, some of them will be settled and housed. This funding will help to change vulnerable members of society’s lives for the better.

Many people in society are concerned about the evolution of services with health and housing, writes Michael McElligott, Amwell Street, Finsbury.

We need politicians who can deliver solutions, not just talk about it hypothetically as that changes nothing. Politics is proving it has no solutions, as of 2017. I hope that political leaders choose to steer and not use the old games of fear.

Happy New Year 2017

Let us hope,

For hope.

Politicians with less speak,

Actual actions to help the weak.

Stop the NHS from the current crumble,

Help pensioners and children who continue to stumble?

Will the mayor take note?

Many have no boat.

This is a hard town,

Do so many have to drown?

Could the media choose not to spin?

As the social ice is thin.

Provoke provoke,

The social hatred fire they stoke.

Is that smart?

Tearing society apart?

What is the cost?

When we all live with such social frost.

In 2017 I do wonder

Will politicians continue to sneer?

When they get reduced priced food and beer?

They like to talk the talk,

But never walk the walk.

Do they use people in need?

Whilst they feed,

On media their ego and greed?

What’s strange?

Is nothing seems to change.

What is the real curse?

It is getting worse.

So I don’t need a media magician,

I need a pro politician.

When I look through the social periscope,

I just need to see hope.