Whitechapel Bell Foundry is one of the most important and historically most socially and economically significant establishments of art and industry in Britain. Founded in the sixteenth century, it hosted the casting of Big Ben and of the Liberty Bell. The choice over its future is stark: it could now become a boutique hotel for wealthy businessmen, or else a living and working site where traditional artisan skills can be combined with the most modern technologies, a centre that would work in close collaboration with the local community. United Kingdom Historical Building Preservation Trust (a charity with a distinguished track record in heritage-led regeneration) in partnership with Factum Foundation (a global leader in the use of technology for preservation of heritage) have the resources to buy the Foundry buildings from the developer and re-open them as a working foundry, re-equipped with up-to-date machinery, for the production of bells and for art casting. For background go to http://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/02/03/a-bell-themed-boutique-hotel/ and https://ukhbpt.org/whitechapel/information

Sport brings many benefits to many people. Physical activity not only keeps participants fit but also increases confidence, reduces stress and improves wellbeing. The proposed cuts will directly put young people and communities.

Saxon Hill Acadamy is a special needs school in Lichfield for children up to the age of 19. It currently runs a Sleepover Club where students can stay overnight. At the moment this runs four nights a week during term time. This provision provides a place where the students can socialise together, something which is difficult outside this setting due to the complex needs of these young people. As well as the social side it also helps with independence away from the family. The staff help the students to reach their potential in a safe and happy environment. This a unique service not provided by many other places and is important to the pupils, families and staff of the school. I speak from experience having been a pupil at Saxon Hill Acadamy and attending sleepover club for many years. I believe it helped the move to residential college easier for me when I left at 19 and gave me the confidence to succeed in the future. I am currently working in theatres and I am the disability officer for a local political party. The County Council have just announced that they are cutting funding to the sleepover club which means places are being reduced from 44 to 33. This means 11 students will have their places taken away from them. This will happen from the 1st April 2019. Furthermore the contract is only being given for one year and will then be reviewed before next April. This means sleepover could be closed next year. This is an important facility that needs to be saved and have it’s funding restored.

It is very important that this step or similar is included in Section 444 of The Education Act to avoid what is currently taking place for some families. Of course parents who are not bothering to take their children to school for no good reason should be dealt with. However, when you have disabled children or in my case Autistic children the causation of lower attendance can be for very different reasons. For example, numerous legitimate hospital and clinic appointments can soon lead to lower attendance levels and children being flagged up for concerns. This is especially true during the statutory assessment process when there are lots of appointments with professionals and assessments undertaken. I have autistic children. Children with high levels of anxiety around social interactions with associated sensory processing dysregulation who need a higher level of support. Getting that support in place can be a protracted process where budgets available to support are already stretched. Sometimes support fails and needs updating or amending. Again unfortunately this tends not to happen quickly. In the interim, while children are waiting for help to be put in place it can lead to very real school based anxiety reflected very often in school refusal or lateness. This is a very different kettle of fish. I believe that there should be a separate process for these situations and that is a simple fix by way of an amendment or exclusion. Too often EWO action is used as the first response and this can really frighten parents who are already parenting under pressure. This response to difficulties doesn't help the child and it certainly doesn't solve the situation. I feel it is not what Section 444 was designed for. I live in Exeter, Devon. I am currently party to such a situation. I have an autistic child in the middle of a statutory assessment. I am nearly at week 20 of the process. Many needs have been identified including new diagnosis and the local authority in charge have confirmed that they will issue an EHCP in response to those needs. Those needs include Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, Sensory Processing Dysregulation, Dysarthria. This is a child with many barriers to the mainstream school environment. In the interim whilst needs are identified, there is still no Education, Health, Care Plan (EHCP) in place and subsequently no extra funding available to deliver extra help in school. SEND Support has not been stepped up in response. SEND Support comes out of a budget which is not ring fenced and so many schools in the current climate simply do not have money available. Children have very often already broken down or are suffering by the time all of the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed. My son is presently in limbo without the support that he needs being put in place. As a result, his anxiety has increased around going to school, in the absence of any consistent support to the recommendations around this, we have had to bring him into school slightly later to avoid the sensory overload (noise, visual stimulation) that the very busy mainstream morning school environment causes him. This has got much worse, the longer his now very much identified needs have gone unidentified and unmet. He will be 6 years old in the summer. The first response of the school and the local authority has not been to support us and work together to put support in place with the professionals around the child, but rather to fire out an EWO letter to us with no prior meeting to discuss or resolve. Fire this letter knowing full well that this child has special educational needs and that he is in the middle of this statutory process. We have done our level best as parents, contacting the team around the child as the difficulties began to present themselves and we have asked for their help. We wait hopefully for a response. Also sometimes attendance issues can be the first red flag for children who have special educational needs or disabilities. This should be factored in to my mind when the school or local authority are noticing attendance issues. Is this being caused by SEND? Section 22 and 23 of the Children and Families Act highlights statutory duty around these children. Section 22: The duty of Identifying children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and Section 23: The duty of health bodies to bring certain children to local authority's attention. SEND as a causation should surely be the FIRST possibility ruled out? Lots of parents to disabled children become so afraid with this gun being held to their heads that they deregister and home educate their children rather than face a legal battle. Section 444 shouldn't cause exclusion of disabled/SEND children from school, backing helpless parents into a corner? That cannot be allowed to be the knock on effect of this law! It needs to be amended or SEND children need to be excluded. EWO letters/action clearly are not a helpful response to unmet special educational needs for disabled children. For lots of parents this can cause more very real worry, distress and anxiety on top of what is already a difficult situation. Section 444 allows in extreme cases for action towards parents that falls under criminal law. This is not an appropriate road to travel in these circumstances. As a seasoned and experienced parent to SEND children, I can confirm that It's a common nationwide practice that I see occur more often than it should do. I don't believe that the intention of this law was that it be used in this way towards disabled/SEND children and their parents/carers and that there should be clear steps involved in the process to prevent this from happening or that disabled children should be exempt from Section 444 and different legislation be applied altogether.

College Farm in Finchley, North London is one of the very few genuine farms in the capital. It was established over 150 years ago by the Express Dairy and many of the original buildings still exist. Three are listed by Historic England as being buildings of great historical or artistic value and have official protection to prevent them from being changed or destroyed. Many adults in North London will have fond memories of visiting the farm as a child with their parents or school. In recent years the farm has not been open to the public, and a group of concerned residents from Finchley are worried that the farm might one day be sold and lost to the community forever. Listing the farm as an Asset of Community Value will give the community the chance to bid for the farm should it ever come on to the market. A decision will be made on March 7th so we need the help of as many people as we can find to convince the Council that this is a worthy campaign.

My son has just lost a school friend in a tragic road accident this week whilst he was cycling to school Tuesday morning. A car and Tyler collided and he sadly sustained fatal injuries, sadly a helmet was not worn. This MUST stop. On spot fines or confiscate cycles if a helmet is not wore by the cyclist. Helmets should be the norm, to make it less trendy for these teenagers to go without one. Everyone will be in the same boat so it becomes less of a stigma.

The road is very busy particularly in the area of the Brighton Hill Centre. The sight lines are poor with stationary buses and a blind corner. Cars regularly exceed the speed limit. There are high numbers of vulnerable people crossing the road. Elderly and unwell people cross to access medical facilities, children and young people cross to access two local schools and there is significant footfall to local shops. Often the only way to cross is to rely on the goodwill of drivers. When buses are stationary cars cannot see pedestrians crossing and vis-versa. Do not wait until a child is injured or worse before improving road safety here.

The government have said that no one should be made worse off by moving onto Universal Credit. But people, like me, who are moving onto Universal Credit due to a "change in circumstances" aren't getting any protections. And are losing hundreds of pounds a month in income. I moved onto Universal Credit two years ago when my wife sadly lost her battle with cancer. I had to quit my job to look after my two young children and I was left waiting for weeks before my payment came through. Basic rights are put in jeopardy such as food, water, and a roof over your families head. The government aren't doing enough to address this. Please will you sign my petition calling on them to make sure no one moving onto Universal Credit is left worse off?

Music bring so many benefits to so many people and the ability to learn an instument at school is critical in protecting our cultural heritage

The naturalist Sir David Attenborough has said climate change is humanity's greatest threat in thousands of years and it could lead to the collapse of civilisations and the extinction of "much of the natural world". "We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe", warns the United Nations. "Urgent changes are needed to cut risk of extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty", says the International Panel on Climate Change. Our Government is ignoring these warnings and is not on target to meet the environmental commitments it made in Paris in 2015. Sheffield City Council should be a trailblazing Council like Bristol, Nottingham, Frome, the Forest of Dean, Scarborough, the London Assembly and the growing number of councils that are declaring an emergency and planning to quickly reduce their emissions. Declaring a Climate Emergency means acting as if it is an emergency by taking measures to reduce carbon emissions from both production and consumption as quickly as possible. We still have a chance to avert the worst of the scientific predictions currently being made but we must act now. Sheffield City Council is meeting on Wednesday 6th February and should declare a Climate Emergency before it is too late. It is vital the motion they pass sets a firm commitment to carbon neutrality by 2030. Please sign this petition, and contact your local councillor to ask them to support the motion for a zero carbon city by 2030.

Cutting funding to these organisations will force complete closure of some centres and a dramatically reduced programme of groups/services to others. This will have severe consequences on the local community, young and old, with detrimental impacts on their health and well being. Pilton Community Health Project, Pilton Equalities Project, North Edinburgh Timebank, Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre, Muirhouse Millennium Centre, Almond Mains Initiative and North West Carers all face major cuts to their services. Some will have to close. These projects provide a lifeline for many people. They offer support for women experiencing domestic abuse; breakfast clubs for children; activities for older people; counselling and support for those with mental health problems; access to food for those on low incomes; literacy work with people with learning disabilities; low cost handyman service for older people and more. These services enable people to participate in their community, keep themselves active and healthy. Poverty and social isolation blight our communities. The organisations were already working to the limits of their resources and still not meeting all the need.

This is important for the safety of pupils attending Cromer Road School, and for parents, staff and local residents. We consider that these measures are urgently required in order to protect the safety of our children. A resident’s cat lost its leg after being hit by a speeding vehicle on Shaftesbury Avenue. It does not bear thinking about this happening to a small child, and there have recently been some near misses along Cromer Road after school. There is also a problem with Lorries persistently getting stuck on the narrow roads, causing log-jams and damaging parked vehicles. The Cromer Road one-way system includes: Cromer Road, Shaftesbury Avenue and Bulwer Road (to the east of Plantagenet Road), New Barnet, EN5