The Government led Mid and South Essex Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP - formerly known as Success Regime) are 'selling' their scheme to the public by stating that separation of emergency and planned (elective) care alongside the centralisation of emergency care facilities, will relieve the burden on the three hospitals in this area, thus improving patient outcomes and relieve the current bed shortages, financial and recruitment crisis facing Southend, Basildon and Broomfield ( Mid Essex) hospitals. The bottom line is that this is a financially driven scheme and they need to slash the £400-500 million estimated financial deficit by 2020/21. The health of our local population is being sacrificed in the name of savings in an already highly underfunded NHS which is in crisis. If the Mid and South Essex STP plans are allowed to progress, annually over 5400 patients from the Southend Hospital catchment area alone will have their planned and emergency care re-located to either Basildon or Broomfield hospitals. There are a huge number of concerns that many of their preferred pathways for re-locating and centralising planned and emergency care specialities are detrimental to patient outcomes and will enforce a 'postcode lottery' for NHS services for our local, ever expanding population. The STP had to shelve their dangerous scheme in July 2017 for the A&E downgrades and blanket re-direction of 999 ambulances from Southend and Broomfield Hospital to a 'super A&E' at Basildon, following exposure that the 'on the floor clinicians' were NOT behind the plans and there was the mass public pressure, led by our campaigns. We acknowledge that there are certain conditions such as complex trauma and neurological issues which do indeed benefit patient outcome by transfer to specialist centres and those pathways are already in place. We stand by the opinions of the 'on the floor' clinicians working at our local hospital. We are all for any modernisation of health services IF there is a CLEAR, CLINICALLY EVIDENCE BASED CASE FOR CHANGE supported by adequately staffed community health services, early GP access and increased provision of social care beds and home support to assist discharging patients. There is however little independent clinical rationale for their proposals and the STP to date have not provided any detail about how they will transfer these vast numbers of acutely ill patients between the three hospitals, other than claim they will provide an 'in house transfer team' so they do not increase the pressure on the already understaffed and over-burdened East of England Ambulance Service. We say - by who? With what staff? At what cost to life? With emergency general surgery to name just one example, being moved from Southend to Broomfield - we feel it's a long and busy journey from Southend when you are in an ambulance desperately in need of an operation. If we are honest, we do not think the STP leads have ANY intention of such provision for a large, complex and expensive internal transfer service and the long term goal is to return to the downgrading of both Southend and Broomfield A&Es, redirecting most of the 999 emergencies to Basildon or Broomfield according to their medical or surgical pre-hospital diagnosis. Then there's the HUMAN factor - that many of our loved ones won't be in our LOCAL hospital at their time of crisis, where we can pop to see them (emotional well-being and support from family plays a huge role in patient improvement) or how do we get there 'in time' if we get 'the call' to come quickly. The Mid and South Essex STP are on a Government led timeframe to achieve massive financial savings and the whole STP proposals are built on mass improvement in primary care services (access to GPs, mental health practitioners, community nurses, physios, specialist children's practitioners etc) in the community via 'Locality HUBS' which allegedly will PREVENT many unnecessary hospital admissions. There is also a huge focus on 'self care' and the increased use of web-based apps for self-diagnosis and treatment. Currently and historically, there is a huge GP crisis in South Essex and a significant drop in the numbers of nursing and allied health professional applicants plus unfilled vacancies across the whole of the healthcare sector. Hubs may be located at increased distance from resident's homes than their current GP facility therefore causing issues of accessibility for many patient groups. Then there's the issue of actual investment in the creation of these 'locality hubs' and that these will take YEARS to actually significantly reduce the hospital admission rate in an area with an increasingly elderly population group and massively growing commercial and residential infrastructure. Despite all this, the Mid and South Essex STP still feel it is your best interests to completely re-structure acute hospital services and 'centralise' emergency care for acutely unwell medical and surgical patients in our town. We believe that they must not alter our acute hospital services if there is not the community care resources proven to be in place first. There has been no mention in the STP for provision of community social care beds for those patients discharged from hospital, yet still requiring further care or rehabilitation before they can safely go home. Investment in this would reduce the 'exit block' from our A&E, provide timely discharges back to the community and prevent cancelled operations, as there would once more be the availability of inpatient beds. These simple measures would alleviate much of the pressure on our local hospital without the need to re-locate essential and life-saving services. Our NHS is in crisis and we refuse to become collateral damage in the name of cuts. For further details of all of the concerns, please follow the SaveSouthendNHS page https://www.facebook.com/SaveSouthendNHS/ Twitter @NHSunited.

We love living in Gateshead's best kept secret... Birtley! But the streets and pavements of our little town have now gone beyond what is an acceptable level for public health. There are increasing amounts of litter but more worryingly, dog waste. People with buggies are finding it impossible to steer away from unwanted 'deposits' and in the summer when children wear sandals it's nothing short of dangerous. When I asked the local council what could be done I was told cuts to local authority budgets meant a street cleaning service can no longer be provided in the Birtley area. We love living in Birtley - great schools, a bustling high street and amazing people, but the cleanliness of the streets is now unacceptable. As residents, many of us are vigilant and make sure any litter is picked up. But more needs to be done! Will you join me in signing and sharing this petition, as well as doing what we can when we see litter, to make Birtley better?

The only time this service ran successfully was while it was run by government after National Express handed it back after two years in 2009. In its five years as East Coast, the state-run firm returned a little more than £1bn in premiums, as well as several million in profits, to the Treasury. Detailed financial analysis from the Office of Rail Regulation shows it was one of two firms to make a net contribution to government coffers over the previous two years. Now, history is repeating itself. Grayling is terminating the contract with Stagecoach/Virgin and releasing them from the £2bn worth of payments they were due to make between 2020 and 2023. Guess who will pick up this tab. Not only that, but Stagecoach/Virgin will still be allowed to bid on future contracts. Unbelievable. I want Grayling to hold the franchisee to its obligations or bar them from future government bids. Other private companies in other sectors have backed out of their contractual obligations with impunity if their contract is not profitable within a couple of years, and it is becoming a norm. Public services should not succeed or fail at the whim of private firms' accountants. It is the government's responsibility to consistently fund those services on which the public depends for its health, security, education, transport and energy. If Grayling does not hold Stagecoach/Virgin responsible for its financial obligations or ban it from securing future contracts he should be sacked.

Residents in Newtongrange and Mayfield were promised that community facilities would be retained. We call upon Midlothian Council to honour this commitment.

Rough sleeping has almost doubled in the last year, but, the number of supported beds for homeless people has plummeted. There is also not enough affordable accommodation for people to move on to, making matters worse. As a result, despite the goal of no second night out, rough sleepers are waiting an average of 12 weeks before some form of accommodation is provided. We therefore urge BHCC to fund resources to expand the amount of support accommodation available for homeless people all year round, not just when temperatures hit 0c and ensure that the existing budget available is spent. PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION BEFORE WEDNESDAY 31ST JAN 2018 so that we can take the signatures to the council at their next meeting. Please share this with family, friends, work colleagues, school mates, members of your clubs etc - it really does have an impact.* *My first petition to BHCC received 4,111 signatures. On the 6th April 2017 the Housing Committee passed the petition with 100% of the vote, which was then carried to the resources committee - who reserved £135,000 for night shelters. This funding has gone to finance a night shelter which the council opened on the 10th Dec 2017 in the Brighton Centre. Many thanks to all those who signed up, you made a big difference to some of the Brighton and Hove rough sleepers!

We propose that Horsham District Council provides a food waste collection and anaerobic digestion or in-vessel composting service in Horsham. Our planet is poised on the brink of a severe environmental crisis. The public not only recognises the need to be more environmentally conscious but also environmentally proactive. Change starts with ourselves and our personal choices, but given this facility we could make a difference on a wider scale. The average family wastes on average 20% of the foods they purchase at a cost of £60 a month. 4 million tonnes of unavailable food waste is generated a year from households alone. Not only do we have a moral obligation to reduce waste, it also makes economic sense. It costs less than half to recycle food waste through anaerobic digestion compared to including it with the household waste. This means that recycling food waste would make long-term savings to help protect our critical frontline council services like social care, libraries and schools. Recycling food waste also represents the most sustainable way of extracting value and turning this waste into a resource. The generated electricity from the gas produced during the anaerobic digestion process can either be fed back into the National Grid or perhaps used to provide power for a housing estate for poorer families. The other huge benefit to anaerobic digestion is the reduction of CO2 – every tonne of food waste recycled by anaerobic digestion as an alternative to landfill prevents between 0.5 and 1.0 tonne of CO2 entering the atmosphere. We are aware that the Biffa Brookhurst Wood plant in Warnham currently processes food waste in an Anaerobic Digester however separating waste types at point of collection is the most efficient way of minimising contamination between different waste and maximising the value that can be recovered from each waste. That is why we believe that single stream source segregation of food waste is so important. A Food Waste collection service would surely be welcomed by Horsham residents, especially given the forthcoming cut to general waste collection to every fortnight rather than every week from 5 February 2018. This is part of Horsham District Council’s proposal to reduce the amount of waste we recycle from the current 44% to national target of 50% by 2020. Furthermore as part of a 2015 analysis, Horsham Council found that 28% of what we throw away is food waste. We fully support the Council’s pledge to encourage recycling and reduce general waste. If food waste collection was to be introduced, it would surely be a natural partnership to help residents achieve this goal. We suggest the following steps as a starting point: 1. The council makes contact with large scale in-vessel composting companies, and makes plans for the practicalities of collection, composting, and use of the compost. If necessary, the council can contact other councils who have successfully overcome this issue, for advice. For example: Lewes Council: Matthew Busby, Waste & Recycling Customer Support, Acting Supervisor Surrey County Council: Mike Goodman, Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning Jason Russell, Deputy Director for Environment & Infrastructure Jacqui Archer, PA and Project Support Officer 2. Once initial planning stages are in place, the new service is announced to the public with details about how to use the service, and the good news about the impact this will have on the environment and economy. 3. Compost collection bins, and compostable bags if needed, are delivered to all the residents in Horsham with instructions on how to use, how the collection service works, and information about where the food waste will go as well as the positive environmental impact. 4. Food waste collection and responsible disposal is rolled out across the Horsham District. 5. Find ways to monitor the food waste scheme, and create a report one year later of the impact this has had in terms of waste reduction and sustainability in Horsham. Share these results with residents to encourage them to continue to use the service. We believe a realistic timeframe for the above to be implemented is by December 2018, and urge the council to rise to this.

This is important because it could undermine both children's services right across Lancashire and the whole viability of Lancashire NHS trust itself.

Fife's Education Service is proposing to cut all instrumental tuition in schools except for those pupils taking SQA Music. This will decimate music for Fife's children and young people. Learning any instrument will become an exclusive activity, reserved for those who can find a private teacher. Only these pupils will have the option of taking SQA Music at high school. Pursuing further study in music, at school or college, will be closed off to children whose parents cannot afford years of private tuition. Starved of upcoming players, school and youth orchestras and bands will struggle to survive and become increasingly elitest.

Families first Johnstone, Gallowhill, Foxbar Renfrewshire provide lots of support assistance and guidance to families in johnstone/ Renfrewshire! These ladies are like nanny McPhee in the sense if you need them they are there!! 😁 They bring communities together and help families thru tough times weather it's providing a listening ear, or giving financial advice to even helping service users get back into work! Many families face challenges on a daily basis and they are there in a crisis to offer support and help families grow in confidence to push thru the hard stuff!! They also run workshops and fun clubs for our children encouraging families to get out learn new skills and meet other people essentially they take away some of the loneliness sometimes many parents face and give our children something to look forward too! if this service was withdrawn from our community there essentially would be nowhere for families to turn too for advice support assistance in a crisis, there wouldn't be any of these clubs for our children, essentialy the heart of the community would be lost! These ladies deserve a Pay rise but instead are faced with losing their jobs, but if we stand together maybe we could turn it around for many more years to come, save our families first Johnstone!! 😁👨‍👨‍👧👨‍👨‍👧‍👦👩‍👩‍👧‍👦👩‍👩‍👧👨‍👩‍👧👨‍👩‍👦‍👦

Since the introduction of parking meters in Hereford city centre recently, there has been a dramatic drop in footfall and this is having a huge impact on retailers and businesses in general but it is our smaller local independent traders that appear to be suffering the most. The last thing we need in Hereford right now is more empty shops and more people out of work. Please reconsider increasing the parking times in Hereford, you know it makes sense.

For the past 2 years Southern Rail commuters have had to endure a horrendous train service with endless strikes, cancellations and train shortages. There have been people leaving their jobs, moving home and missing out on time with their family and loved ones and all because of the incompetency of the service and the people running it. Why should we now have to pay even more? There should be a significant reduction in the price to go some way towards compensating commuters for the misery they have faced and are still facing with no end in sight.

This is a big step towards breaking up the NHS in Somerset. It splits up the NHS family, can make services worse for patients, and puts staff at risk from attacks on their pay and conditions. Together we can stop the Trust’s scheme. To do that we need the strength of EVERYONE. Please sign our petition, share with family and friends, and across social media. Let’s get as many signatures as possible. The Trust is currently refusing to consult and engage with trade unions and the public! The 350 workers the Trust is targeting are employed in Estates and Facilities. But if this plan goes through, other departments will follow. Hospital bosses want to make terms and conditions more “flexible” – and we all know that’s code for cutbacks. YDH’s claim that this scheme reduces their VAT payments is misguided. More Parliamentary scrutiny is falling on NHS Trusts who attempt to lower their tax payments. It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul – it doesn’t create any more money for public services. The only people making a profit are consultancy firms “advising” the Trust.