I am an Australian from Sydney. Part of a recent trip to Europe was spent travelling to family in Islington, writes AIlan Schofield, by email.

Some weeks later, to our surprise and bewilderment, we were issued through our rental car company a fine for transgressing a “traffic calming measure”. As a new driver in central London I had proceeded through the traffic feature and thought nothing of it until receiving the fine.

The signage, at a glance, did not immediately and glaringly display to me I would be fined if I proceeded though; it took quite an effort to understand what I had actually done.

Good on Islington Council and Cllr Claudia Webbe for issuing driving and parking fines and promoting cleaner, safer streets that reflect the majority of residents in our borough [Gazette, August 4], writes Jenny Morgan, full address supplied.

I find it hard to feel sympathy for drivers who incur charges especially in relation to parking and traffic offences. Don’t park or drive illegally and then you won’t be fined! Owning and driving a car is a privilege, not a right. You break the law, you pay the penalty.

The borough should be supported in its desire to make our roads reflect the majority of users – just 37 per cent of residents own cars in Islington. Road access is just as much the right of pedestrians, cyclists, wheelchair users, and skateboarders as it motorised vehicles – or perhaps more so taking into account the shocking levels of pollution.

I would like to see our roads given over to walking and cycling with car use only for the mobility-impaired and frail elderly. We also need to find ways to make delivery vehicles more efficient and road-friendly.

I would like to say a massive thank you to our local councillor Jenny Kay, write Dessy and Mark Jones, Islington, full address supplied:

She has been extremely helpful to us and our complaint of three years dealing with leaks into our property and other related issues with Islington Council. She has been super-efficient and has managed to get the council to do its job properly in a very short time. I wish we knew about councillors and their jobs when the problem first occurred. This would have saved us so much aggravation and stress.

So, thank you Jenny for all your hard work and managing to keep our sanity! If only all council workers were like you!

Islington Council has already written to its tenants to announce it will be implementing the Tories’ pay to stay policy, writes an Islington resident, full name and address supplied.

No opposition. No delaying tactics. No strategy, except implementing it on behalf of the Tory government.

Don’t expect Emily Thornberry, our local Labour MP, to do anything either. She never cared about housing issues and is now largely silent on “pay to stay”.

So this is what the Labour Party has come to: telling people to expect hard times and we’ll do nothing about it. At least now it’s clear Islington Council doesn’t give a damn. And the Labour Party simply no longer cares.

We are all groups and campaigns of ordinary people working locally in the borough of Islington, write Morag Gillie, Islington Axe the Housing Act; Shirley Franklin, chairman, Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition; Mick Gilgunn, secretary, Islington TUC; George Durack, chairman, Islington Pensioners Forum; Andy Bain, chairman, Islington Hands off our Public Services [IHOOPS]; Ken Muller, Islington NUT; Cllr Gary Heather, CWU; Mohammed Kozbar, vice president, Muslim Association of Britain.

Over the years our goals to try to make Islington, and the wider society, fairer for everyone, have been encouraged enormously by the involvement and support of the Islington North MP, Jeremy Corbyn.

Jeremy has been an incredibly hard-working and committed constituency MP for the past 33 years, unfailing in his participation in all movements fighting for material gains for ordinary people, and for social justice.

We cannot recognise the picture of him portrayed by his opponents in the political elite and the mainstream media as vain, self-serving and egotistical. We, who know him so well, can attest that his commitment to politics is brave, honest, principled and altruistic: his judgements on such difficult issues as Northern Ireland and Iraq, condemned at the time by that same political and media elite, are now completely vindicated.

We wholeheartedly support him continuing his crucial role and commend the loyalty his fellow Islington MP, Emily Thornberry, has shown.