• Every year 12 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the ocean, killing 100,000 marine mammals and turtles and a million sea birds • 100+ million plastic cups are used every year at UK festivals and live events, and most of these are incinerated or sent to landfill • Globally 500 billion plastic cups are used each year. If lined up end-to-end these cups would span 50 million kilometres – or more than 130 trips from the Earth to the Moon • Plastic pint cups are the sixth-most commonly found plastic item in Britain’s rivers, and the eighth on the nation’s beaches

Social media apps have been shown to be a huge danger to children over and over again. It's time to pass a law to force the makers of the apps to take responsibility, and ensure that no-one under 16 is able to use social media apps in the UK.  Let's hold the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to account, and cut them off from access to our children.  The dangers of how children interact on social media currently being highlighted in Netflix show Adolescence.  Young, impressionable minds are being driven to dangerous places by profit hungry social media companies. Children are being exposed to huge harm, from online bullying, to toxic characters like Andrew Tate, or even algorithms that promote eating disorders and more, social media has become a dangerous unregulated wild west for our children. 

It’s no secret that after decades of cuts, adult learning remains woefully underfunded whilst continuing to deliver impressive outcomes not just in skills but for health and wellbeing, work progression and community building amongst others. However, unless the government reverses the trend of cuts to adult education, learning will be shut off from those who need it most.  Ahead of the Government's Spending Review, the Department for Education has announced that next year's Adult Skills Fund will be cut. The Fund is split between the Mayoral Combined Authorities and the central agency, the ESFA. The ESFA’s budget will be reduced by 6%, whilst the Mayors’ skills budgets can expect a reduction of 2-3%. This cut will affect thousands of learners across the whole country.   We still have no guarantees that it won’t be cut further in the Spending Review.  “"The WEA has 100% impacted positively on my life. My friend said just come along and see the cookery class, so I went and absolutely loved it. It was amazing, and through that I ended up volunteering at the school's breakfast club. Now I've moved on to teaching assistant training at the local community centre and I'm doing the placement at the children's school. Honestly, I was stuck at home, down in the dumps and absolutely doing nothing. But now I'm out four days a week working and at classes. it's like a career the WEA has created for me." Joanne, a WEA learner”

Hill Rise and Richmond hill are home to a wonderful mix of independent businesses—boutique shops, cafes, restaurants, artisan crafts and food, and specialty stores that bring character, charm, and diversity to Richmond. These are not just business but are passionate locals offering something truly unique that you won’t find in the big chains of the town centre. However, a lack of visibility and soaring council rents are making it harder and harder for us to survive. Many visitors and residents don’t even realise that if they just walked a little further up the hill, they’d find a thriving, independent retail community. Now, with retail council rates nearly doubling, many of us are struggling to stay open. If footfall doesn’t improve as these costs rise, we risk losing these small businesses—many of which are run by locals who contribute so much to Richmond’s economy and community. What We Need from Richmond Council We are asking for some simple but essential support to help increase foot traffic and keep our businesses alive: • Signage – A clear and visible sign at the bottom of Hill Rise, near Ottolenghi and the cinema, so people know we’re here. • Free advertising and promotional support – Visibility in Richmond town center and on council-run platforms to help raise awareness. • A conversation with business owners – A chance to work together on solutions that ensure Hill Rise remains a vibrant part of Richmond’s shopping experience. Richmond’s independent businesses are a big part of what makes this town special. If we don’t act now, we risk losing what makes Richmond different. Please help to support these measures and help ensure the survival of Hill Rise’s independent businesses.

Global Warming will, if allowed to continue, have a catastrophic effect on life on this planet.

The British spouse visa system is painfully unfair compared to the rest of the world. While many European countries prioritise family unity with lower costs and simpler processes, the UK forces couples to jump through impossible hoops just to be together.  The high financial threshold and excessive fees turn love and family life into a privilege only the wealthy can afford. Families are being torn apart, not because they lack love or commitment, but because they can’t meet arbitrary financial demands. No one should have to choose between love and financial survival — it’s time for change. 

More and more people in our society are being left with no option but to turn to a food bank to feed themselves or their family. From 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024, Cambridge City Foodbank alone issued a record high 17,500 3-day emergency food parcels. Behind the 171 tonnes of parcels given out are thousands of stories. Some spoken. Others not.  Redundancy, in-work poverty, caring for a sick family member, relationship breakdown, arthritis. People who never thought they would have to use a food bank. Stories of hunger we are hearing more of in Cambridge that come from people claiming Universal Credit. People in acute crisis. Living day to day. Counting the pennies and making items stretch as far as they can. Many feel ashamed and judged for having to rely on welfare and yet are still not able to afford the essentials. If this was you, how would you feel? If this is you, why suffer in silence?  Most people would expect the levels of support offered by our social security system, if we face hard times, to cover the essentials; to cover the fundamentals for healthy living. But it doesn’t. We are calling on the UK Government to take urgent action and provide immediate relief for people facing hunger. By ensuring a new basic rate, some 8.8 million low-income families would benefit, including 3.9 million families with children and over half of all working-age families in the UK with a disabled family member.  By signing this petition, we send a strong signal to our local MP Daniel Zeichner that the people of Cambridge support these long overdue changes to Universal Credit to ensure we can all afford the essentials in hard times. We also show that as a city we support each other’s wellbeing and dignity, united and as a community. Let’s make change happen and end the need for food banks. Sign today and make it count.  Your name will be seen on the petition. See the Cambridge City Foodbank data protection policy here if you have questions about how your data will be used:  Privacy & Cookies | Cambridge City Foodbank To get involved with the campaign group, please send an email to: [email protected]

Thousands of vulnerable children are at risk of losing life-changing therapy because the Government has failed to commit to renewing the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) beyond March 31, 2025. This fund provides essential therapeutic support for adopted children and those in special guardianship who have suffered trauma, neglect, and abuse. Without it: More children could experience placements break down. This will result in the cost to taxpayers soaring, with care placements costing  on average £200,000 per child per year—far more than the therapy funding.  Families who stepped up to provide love and stability will be abandoned, and children will be left to struggle alone. There is also ongoing societal costs. Statistically children who have grown up in care are more likely to have mental health issues, struggle to find gainful employment and are more likely to end up in jail. Prevention is far better than cure.  This would be one of the cruelest cuts yet, punishing the most vulnerable children in our society. Early intervention protects permanency in adoption and guardianships, and is the most cost-effective solution. We demand that the Government immediately renew the ASGSF for 2025/26 or replace it with an equivalent funding stream to ensure these children continue receiving the support they desperately need. Sign now to tell the Government: Don’t abandon these children. Their future depends on it.

Other people should join me in my campaign because the cost of living crisis effects all of us, lots of people need support/help from food banks and you may know someone who seeks help from one and you might too! For their benefit and for your benefit we should come together and ask the government for more funds to food banks because there just isn't enough money going into food banks.

We are parents and carers of autistic children and young people in Lewisham who have been supported by Drumbeat Outreach over recent years.   We recently found out that Drumbeat Outreach are subject to a consultation with a view to an overall loss of around half of its skilled team. We understand some staff will be offered roles within Drumbeat School but many are facing redundancy if the proposed restructure goes ahead. We have heard that around half of the team will be lost.   Drumbeat Outreach is a service of which Lewisham should be proud. Our children and young people and our families have been supported by Drumbeat Outreach in countless ways.    Firstly, their work in schools has led to tangible changes in the way our children are understood and their needs supported. Their unique model of working with both families and schools gives them an insight into challenges and an ability to suggest adaptations and solutions that no-one else has. They understand school policies, build strong relationships with school teams, and support parents and schools to work together constructively. They have intervened promptly at crucial points in our children’s lives, are able to follow and support them as they journey through the school system. As parents and carers, we know what a difference their input has made to ensuring our children access education and reach their potential.   Secondly, their parent workshops have provided us with timely advice and expertise to better support our own children. Drumbeat Outreach workshops speak to our realities and challenges, giving us evidence-based solutions and support. Over time, these workshops have covered an unparalleled breadth of issues of relevance to our children and our lives, delivered with a depth of knowledge and expertise that others simply do not have.   Thirdly, Drumbeat Outreach run and support many other activities that support and inspire us. These include their coffee mornings for Black and dual heritage families, a podcast, a youth advocates network, a Dads’ group, their sessions for grandparents. Taken together, these activities have improved our children’s mental health, wellbeing and sense of pride in who they are and helped strengthen our families and wider support networks.   If you ask us parents and carers of autistic children and young people in Lewisham what service has helped them in understanding and supporting their children’s needs, their education, mental health and their futures, a large number of them would single out Drumbeat Outreach. They are uniquely trusted by families from across Lewisham’s diverse communities and this trust has been built over many years by skilled and committed professionals.   In the light of the news about cuts, a number of us have written to Councillors, Council staff and Drumbeat School to ask for more information about the plans and to express our concern about any reduction in the Outreach service. The responses we have received give little clarity about the rationale for these drastic cuts, and have confused us further. We are surprised to learn that Councillors in relevant roles appear not to have known anything about these planned cuts.    Lewisham’s Autism Strategy commits to ensuring “specialised support, training, advice and signposting to all stakeholders involved in the care, education and effective inclusion of autistic children and young people in order to create a community that provides equality of provision and life chances, supports independence, champions autonomy and promotes acceptance of difference/neurodiversity”. How will this be achieved with a halved Drumbeat Outreach service?   The Autism Strategy also states its first key principle is “Nothing about us without us”, yet families who will be affected by these cuts have not been consulted and are not being given clear information about these cuts.    The impact of these cuts will be felt across Lewisham and will have a knock-on effect on schools and other Local Authority services who rely on Drumbeat Outreach’s expertise. The loss of a highly-skilled workforce will leave a lasting legacy. While the government puts in motion its plans to ensure more children with SEND are educated in mainstream settings, Lewisham seems to be cutting back the one team that can make this work in practice. What will this mean for our children’s futures?

• Five years after the start of the Covid pandemic, thousands remain severely ill - Many housebound or often bedbound, unable to attend school, work, or take part in daily life.  Disabled, discharged, and hidden from view. • Covid has left millions chronically ill, including over 100,000 children in England and Scotland (ONS data 2024). • Long Covid is not a historic issue - new infections and reinfections continue to increase the number of people developing chronic illness. • Long Covid can cause systemic damage, affecting organs, the immune system, and even the brain. • Half of Long Covid patients meet the criteria for M.E, a condition that, at its most severe, leaves people confined to darkened rooms, unable to sit up, eat or speak. • Instead of investing in care and research, the government is shutting down Long Covid clinics in England, leaving thousands without support. • As knowledge has advanced, NO additional funding has been allocated for Long Covid research—despite the increasing likelihood that further research could lead to effective treatments. A fraction of the additional £26 billion in NHS funding announced for the next two years could change this by:  • Helping children and adults with Long Covid return to their daily lives, education, and work. Providing crucial support for young people transitioning into adulthood and meaningful employment.   • Preventing families and households from falling into financial crisis, allowing parents, caregivers, and those with Long Covid to stay in work while ensuring access to the care they desperately need PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE ✅ #FundOurFuture ✅ #LCandME ✅ #FundThePlan “"I used to be healthy and go to school like everyone else. I used to ride horses and swim and play tennis and play with my friends. Now I spend my life in bed and I'm too sick to move. I have no friends anymore, I can't do my hobbies and I can't do any school. No doctor knows how to help me and for most of the time, none have even tried. Some of them even didn't believe me and said I was just lazy. I am abandoned and I've given up, honestly. I'm not the only one. I don't understand why no one will help us."” 12-year-old living with Long Covid since 2020. ““My teenager has had Long Covid since he was 9. He desperately misses school and football. For a while, he managed 20 minutes of school a day, but he has progressed to severe M.E. and has been unable to walk or tolerate light, screens, or even conversation. I gave up work to care for him. Our family is still stuck in 'lockdown'. Please, please, please help him by funding treatment research.”” Parent of 13-year-old living with Long Covid since 2022

We the people of the UK need a clean country free of litter and fly tipping so we can enjoy a better sustsainable environment that we as residents and all UK visitors can be proud of. This is especially important for the dedicated litter picking groups who care for our communities and environments. "UK litter pickers" on face book