As I strolled round Foxham Gardens, our wonderful tiny local park in Foxham Road, N19, this week, the birds were busy all around, writes Mavis Philbeam, Mercers Road.

The blossom is now at its very best.

This is my favourite “monster” birch tree, which seems to have a different expression according to the weather and the light.

This week it looks very amiable.

All of us at Islington Faiths Forum, representing many different faith communities, are shocked and deeply saddened by recent events in Westminster, writes Roz Miller, director, Islington Faiths Forum.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this attack and their families. Terrorism can never be justified.

Together we can show that Islington, irrespective of faith, colour or creed, stands united. We will continue to work in unity for a peaceful response and against fear, hatred and racism in our society.

The recycling waste for the block of flats where I live in Archway was not collected this week, writes Russell Child, Archway, full address supplied.

Having alerted the council I was told it would not be collected until next week, meaning two week’s worth of rubbish will have accumulated for a block of six flats.

This was not our error. Residents should not be punished if the refuse collectors fail to do their job properly.

The Gazette’s headline “Animals behave better than this” (March 16) rings of gutter press journalism and from the letters page appears to have been taken from someone’s Facebook, which is lazy in my opinion, writes Tricia Clarke, Yerbury Road, Upper Holloway.

I object to people fighting in the streets and anti-social behaviour needs to be stopped but referring to these girls as animals is not helpful.

We need to find solutions to the difficulties these girls face without vilifying them.

Under the guise of offering wi-fi hotspots (previously reported available from existing kiosks), BT is making multiple applications for advertising hoardings on Islington pavements, writes Kate Calvert, chairwoman, Better Archway Forum.

At almost three metres high, the proposed hoardings are considerably taller than the existing 2.2m-high kiosks, and would even outstrip bus stops in height.

What are proposed therefore are structures that would form a much greater visual obstruction from all sides, and an ideal hiding place for muggers in a borough that already suffers high levels of phone theft.

The confirmed objective is to attract the attention of drivers, with advertisements specifically set at driver sightlines. This is not reassuring given the number of accidents recorded on Islington roads.

The type of dominant advertising proposed is rarely found in high value areas but placed in those not considered worthy of better care.

Permission for such structures therefore is a way of designating an area as being of low value. That damage would then be further exacerbated by BT’s minimal interest in maintenance, evident from existing phone kiosks in the borough, which makes it more than likely any new BT structure would be left to become equally shoddy.

TfL policy acknowledges such advertising is problematic and Islington policy does not support the introduction of the type of structure proposed, so there are plenty of reasons to refuse these proposals.

Have other residents had similar problems with Virgin Media?, writes Merilyn Moos, Cressida Road, Archway.

My landline became erratic in October or November and then ceased to function completely about six weeks ago. Using my mobile (very expensive), I’ve phoned up Virgin repeatedly, recently every day, and talked to customer care, the engineers and customer retention, all to no avail. Everybody tells me they will phone me back to tell me what is going on and not one person has done so.

Yesterday, I told Virgin if my landline isn’t fixed by the end of the week, I’m leaving them.