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.

Currently, in America, you can have your toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and other Colgate products recycled, and you even get payed for it! You send it to Terracycle and they turn it into other products for building materials. But not in the EU! We have to pay to have them recycled and it costs over £100 a box! Toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes wash onto our beaches in the millions every day, if colgate offered everyone the opportunity to recycle their products, their sales would go up!

At the moment we are seeing the coldest weather ever and terrible condition. There are so many homeless and their pets with no where to go and are been left to try and survive in this awful weather. There are so many church’s that could open their doors to give people shelter and the community could help run these between them with help from professionals. Please sign this petition to get the church’s in this country to help those in need.

Introducing anti-homeless benches is not going to solve homelessness in Southampton. The council have a responsibility to support people living on the streets by providing shelters. Instead they are making it harder for those without a roof over there head to get by. Benches can provide a place to sleep that is off the ground and dryer than the floor, and sleeping in the town centre is often safer for people sleeping rough, due to CCTV. Hiding societies problems does not solve them. We want Southampton council to act now!

Children need a safe place to play and socialise, there are no other play areas on the Headland that can facilitate this. Please sign this petition to let council officials know the strength of feeling from local residents.

This is absolutely sick and a disgusting trend that has to be stopped as kids are desperate to upload their video to get the most views and likes. The effects on the victims must be horrendous with 100's of comments, views and likes.

Our public parks and open spaces are much loved and used with an estimated 2.6 billion visitors each year but they are also suffering from severe cuts to parks services made by local authorities as they seek to balance their books. To make this worse the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) now want to abandon their hugely successful Parks for People programme that invested millions of peoples lottery money into improving parks and local facilities. Heritage Lottery Fund are currently consulting on this change in funding so help us to convince them to rethink and keep this precious funding so our parks can be protected and continue to be enjoyed by everyone. We'll be handing in the petition to the consultation before it closes on March 22nd. The link to the Heritage Lottery Fund consultation is: https://g4-emea.yougov.com/vFqMLPG37gDzPL

The Lansdowne Monument has stood tall and proud on the skyline overlooking Cherhill since 1845 and is a Grade II* listed monument. Now designated a monument at risk. For the last EIGHT years it has been hidden under scaffolding. The monument is in the ‘care’ of the National Trust, who agreed to conduct a condition survey in February 2018. Although the National Trust agreed to the survey they have stated that they do not have the funds to restore the monument without Fund Matching. (Estimated cost of repair is £1.2 to £1.5 million). Yet within the past eight years no fund matching has commenced. The National Trust do not support independent fund raising. We have tried to engage with the National Trust for the past two years, and have offered to assist in raising funds, but they have ignored us. Unless we start making a fuss, our monument will not be restored. It is not a priority to the National Trust as it is not an income generator. But we must make it a priority for us to ensure that the monument is restored to its former glory! It is an iconic feature of our landscape and part of our heritage. The monument celebrates it's 175th birthday in 2020 and we want our monument restored by this date.

Southern Water seek to gain Michael Gove’s approval to increase river abstraction to levels NEVER SEEN BEFORE. Climate change is exacerbating the situation. We desperately need alternative & timely options to supply public water. The internationally rare English chalk stream riverine habitats & their wildlife are now under severe threat from over abstraction, especially in times of drought. This could prove catastrophic for species such as the genetically unique chalk stream salmon, sea trout, or Hampshire’s last population of the rare native crayfish, let alone the rivers themselves & the livelihoods that depend upon them. We must stop Southern Water using a Public Inquiry to gain Michael Gove’s approval to increase river abstraction to potentially catastrophic and reprievable levels. They intend to sidestep the correct procedure and ride roughshod over our public bodies, which are there to safeguard our environment. Challenging Natural England’s advice & the EA's sustainable licensing to increase abstraction to ruinous levels on our precious chalk streams, in order to meet their corporate goals – profit. We desperately need alternative, sustainable and timely options to supply public water. Action NOW is essential to ensure our rivers are properly protected in the future. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Hampshire Wildlife Trust, Natural England, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Hampshire, Salmon & Trout Conservation, Wild Trout Trust, Test and Itchen Association, Angling Trust and Fish Legal, and the Wessex Chalk streams and Rivers Trust, all oppose Southern Water’s position. HOW? Beginning 13th March, Southern Water through public inquiry are asking Michael Gove (Secretary of State) to approve their increased abstraction plans directly. If upheld, this will by-pass the normal procedures for obtaining an abstraction licence, and will not involve full public consultation including direct and fair engagement with river owners and users - an absolutely CRUCIAL involvement as there is so much at stake in these very complex decisions. SW are using ‘strong arm’ tactics in the Inquiry to make the EA use their legal powers to force river owners and users to co-operate. Some of these proposed actions are highly emotive and again deny the public the fair right to comment. WHAT OTHER DAMAGE COULD THIS CAUSE? Increasing populations and housing in Hampshire are greater than our natural water resources can now sustain. Demand has already exceeded the capacity our rivers and aquifers can supply. So at a time of water scarcity, on already over abstracted rivers, the threat is that SWS customers will be literally sucking the life out of the rivers Candover, Itchen and Test. This will deplete the river flows to levels that will devastate the natural aquatic environment. People will be watering their gardens as the flow of these rivers falls to dangerously unprecedented levels. Is this what people would want if they knew about it? THE SOLUTION - As we speak, Southern Water are preparing to publish a 'draft Water resources management plan' (and Drought Plan) for public consultation. They claim their plans will have a bold vision, with ambitious and innovative ways to secure the necessary alternative sources of supply to enable the Environment Agency’s licence changes to be made. These alternatives will be costly and include trading with Portsmouth Water, Havant Thicket Reservoir and a desalination plant in the Solent. That is what it will take to protect our Chalk streams from over abstraction. HOWEVER, SOUTHERN WATER WILL ONLY IMPLEMENT THESE AMBITIOUS NEW PLANS IF IT LOSES THE INQUIRY! If it wins then it may well in likelihood implement a shadow version... This Inquiry is Southern Water’s last-ditch attempt to cling onto its 40-year-old business model of over exploiting our chalk streams – one that generates a healthy profit margin at huge expense to the environment. TO CONCLUDE - No more stalling by this corporate Leviathan, which is investing large amounts of bill payers’ money on scientific models not fit for purpose to prove their 'case'. Instead they should be working together with and not against NGO’s, stakeholders, their clients and you the people to find alternative water supplies that will safeguard our rivers for generations to come. Please help support the EA's and NE's efforts to protect our rivers by signing our petition to ensure that Southern Water Services take note of their customers’ concerns for the sustainability and protection of these British gems. Many Thanks, Jim & Howard. "The proposed increase in water abstraction from the Test, Itchen & Candover will have a serious, if not disastrous, effect on the delicate balance of this unique ecosystem. We obviously need to meet the water needs of our ever-expanding population but there are less harmful ways to do this. The true chalk streams are only found in Britain (apart from a small presence in Normandy); we are custodians of these precious jewels & we owe it to our children and grandchildren not to undermine them" PAUL WHITEHOUSE - Comedian & fisherman. SW's turnover last year was approx £800 million, with a profit of more than £250 million. Their divis to corporate shareholders were somewhere over £100 million. Thankfully their operations and behaviour are now being scrutinised. See BBC news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43139857 Documents for the public enquiry - http://www.hwa.uk.com/projects/itchen-candover-and-testwood-water-abstraction-inquiry/ Photo by Charles Rangeley Wilson