Over 300 people currently attend one of the day centres facing closure. Most of the users are frail and many suffer from dementia. Being able to meet up with friends means people are less isolated and are able to stay living in the community for much longer. If these services go people may not be able to live independently for as long as they would like to and may be forced into more costly residential care. These centres provide a vital service to the local community and the council should keep them open and fight against government cuts to the council’s budget.

The speed of motorists driving through many roads in Glenavy is disturbing and coupled with no footpaths to the school this is most certainly a disaster waiting to happen. Glenavy Residents Association have tried to address this with Department for Infrastructure through a survey of the area. Although the results of this survey proves that 85% of vehicles speed is above the speed limit it also states that due to the limited finances the department has, it can’t provide traffic calming measures in Glenavy for the foreseeable future. Glenavy Residents Association does not and cannot accept this decision. Therefore we are requesting residents, their family and friends to sign this petition and lets call on Peter May (Permanent Secretary of Department for Infrastructure) to secure funds for these life changing measures i.e. speed calming measures of the roads investigated and also footpaths on the Glen road to Ballymacrickett school. Normally we would be requesting this from the minister of DFI but seen as there is no government in place we are calling on the Permanent Secretary for his intervention.

We, here at Riverside Blues Cafe, are still pretty new but have put everything into creating a great place in a great town! The council want to stop us having live music all together and change the hours we are open just months after issuing us with a license. We are hoping that our amazing customers and people from the local area will back us by signing the petition and showing that the Riverside Blues cafe in it's short time has become a vital part of the local music scene and community. Please help fight this unfair battle!

Carillion was managing support services at the British Museum when they announced bankruptcy on 15 January. Five years ago PCS members campaigned against outsourcing when directly employed staff were privatised and transferred to Carillion. Many have worked at the museum for over 20 years. Now they are being paid by the receivers and face an uncertain future. Under insolvency rules staff have no protection of their terms and conditions if they are transferred to another company. The Museum Director Hartwig Fischer has not even met with staff. This threat is not limited to British Museum: • The Imperial War Museum privatised its gallery services back in 2014. The private contractor Shield went bust in 2016 and was bought up by yet another private firm Noonan leaving staff unsure of the future of their pensions. • The National Gallery privatised 400 workers back in 2015 despite a long-running campaign opposing it, made from striking employees, other culture unions and a number of art campaigners and lovers. Private company Securitas has refused to honour promises and has been less than cooperative with workers represented by PCS. Meanwhile the National Gallery itself has de-recognised the union arguing that most of its members were now working for Securitas. • Some of Tate’s visitor services were provided by privateer Wilson James who used Zero Hours contracts and paid their employees far less than Tate. PCS members won union recognition and parity of pay after their EqualiTate campaign. But in 2017 the contract was passed on to Securitas who immediately de-recognised the PCS union.

It is a national treasure and brings people back to nature.

Because greater access to the park will improve and lengthen lives across the city. The regular parking charge in Wollaton Park is a tax on the people of the city impeding access to the health benefits of green space. An disincentive where there should be an incentive. Citing Michael Marmot, the team at Public Health England have written a report titled 'Local action on health inequalities: Improving access to green spaces'; quoting from the report directly, this is the Summary: 1. There is significant and growing evidence on the health benefits of access to good quality green spaces. The benefits include better self-rated health; lower body mass index, overweight and obesity levels; improved mental health and wellbeing; increased longevity. 2. There is unequal access to green space across England. People living in the most deprived areas are less likely to live near green spaces and will therefore have fewer opportunities to experience the health benefits of green space compared with people living in less deprived areas. 3. Increasing the use of good quality green space for all social groups is likely to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities. It can also bring other benefits such as greater community cohesion and reduced social isolation. 4. Local authorities play a vital role in protecting, maintaining and improving local green spaces and can create new areas of green space to improve access for all communities. Such efforts require joint work across different parts of the local authority and beyond, particularly public health, planning, transport, and parks and leisure. http://www.hullpublichealth.org/assets/PHE/Briefing8.pdf The council claim to raise £300,000 revenue from parking charges. They do not account for the capital or ongoing costs directly associated with collection of that revenue. The indirect cost to the cafes, attraction and shops within the park, from deterred customers is also not considered material by the council. Thinking long term, recognising that the council will continue to look after the people of the city for perpetuity and the rising cost of social care, would the books be better balanced with a healthier elderly population in 10, 20, 30, 100 years time? The charge should be removed.

This is the United kingdoms legacy to its children We have a moral responsibility to retain Britain's wildlife, not wipe it out of existence. We have a responsibility to show our children compassion toward living beings We have a responsibility to show our children that the almighty £pound is not the be all and end all of our existence. - Morals before destruction - compassion before profit - responsibility, accountability and transparency

For over thirty years, Scottish Youth Theatre has provided encouragement, space, opportunity and support for young people to engage with the creative industries. It has helped countless thousands of young people in Scotland to build their confidence, meet new friends and develop their creative potential. And so much more. Sadly, on 7 March, Scottish Youth Theatre announces via a statement on its website that due to this cut in its core funding it would cease trading on 31 July 2018: http://scottishyouththeatre.org/article/public-statement-by-syt/?platform=hootsuite 2018 is Scotland’s national Year of Young People. But even if it wasn’t it would still be a travesty to cut the funding for Scotland’s national youth theatre. There can surely be no prism through which the decision to cut this funding makes sense or could be viewed as a good thing for Scotland’s youth, creative sector, artistic reputation nor our economy. Please sign and share this petition to show the Scottish Government the level of public support in opposition to the cut in funding for SYT. Thank you.

Blackford village hall car park has been available to the community for many decades. In that time no accidents have occured, the Blackford village Hall committee, though covered by Public Liability insurance feel having access to the car park, for visitors to the play park and collect children from school is putting children's lives at risk! Not opening the car park is putting lives at risk, not only are the children unable to play in their community park while awaiting older siblings they are also being shown how narrow minded some communities can be, what is this teaching our children!

The petition I started last year with 38 Degrees to remove all plastic from tea bags succeeded in persuading the UK's largest tea bag manufacturer, Unilever/PG Tips to remove plastics from their teabags. But the other leading UK teabag manufacturers are still using plastics in their teabags. The issue of having these plastics (polypropylene) in teabags is a concern. 20-25% plastic in each teabag is not a small or insignificant amount when multiplied up by the millions and millions of tea bags consumed daily. These plastics do not biodegrade in the environment. There have been many campaigns to keep plastics and microplastics out of our seas, highlighting the harm they do to marine life. But the same is true of plastics on land as they can cause harm to birds and small mammals. We need to keep ALL plastics OUT of our environment. We know that it is possible to use other materials that are biodegradable and I am told by a major European teabag paper manufacturer that there is a “Gold Standard” of cellulose-based bags that will readily compost in your garden compost bin, which, in fact, goes a stage better than the PLA-based bags about to be employed by PG Tips and Coop. With your support, we can make the other UK teabag manufacturers remove plastic from their tea bags.

It is important that these treasures are returned to Pollok House, because it means that the public, or tourists, are able to see these paintings without the need to make appointments with the resource centre. At Pollok House, they provide the best opportunity to see the paintings in good light, and without any time limits one might be able to stand in front of them. The greater access opportunities at Pollok House offers those who wish to study the old masters to grow and learn by looking at such works by Murillo, El Greco, Blake, Rubens, and some fine copies of Titian. There is also the visual enjoyment one gets by looking at great art. In addition, if tourists visit Glasgow, they might not be well versed with GMRC and might not have time to make appointments. The National Trust property may also be losing money by not having these treasures on display, while they are kept in storage, in another part of Glasgow. We call on Councillor David McDonald, and Glasgow Life, to return these treasures without any delay. [email protected]

The Parks Trust is an attempt to protect parks from severe local authority budget cuts and avoid responses taken elsewhere, some of which have gone as far as selling off parks for development. The new trust is being billed as a pioneering innovation with the potential to be rolled out to other local authorities in similarly dire financial situations. Without action, this model could pave the way for commercialisation of the nation's parks on a massive scale. Imagine billboards advertising chocolate bars and fizzy drinks, large areas carpeted over for car parking in areas which should be served by public transport, events held on so many days of the year that large areas are off limits to those without the means to pay. All these things are a very real possibility and they undermine the social benefits of parks that have been safeguarded for generations.