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 Derbyshire Unemployed Workers’ Centre (DUWC) received a grant of more than £41,000 annually and a further £50,000 from Public Health to carry out tribunal representation work for people challenging decisions by the Department for Work and Pensions regarding benefit reductions and withdrawals. But the funding from the County Council will come to an end on March 31. Colin Hampton, co-ordinator of the centres for the past 33 years, said: “DUWC, irrespective of who is in government, gives a voice to those who come to seek our help." “You would think those in power would welcome this feedback but it appears that this authority would rather not hear what they have to say." “The centres have many funding streams and even more supporters. We will be embarking on a massive fundraising campaign to bridge the gap left by the Council’s cynical move.” Thousands of Derbyshire residents use the service, which has offices throughout the county. It also comes at a time when the centres are dealing with the full digital roll out of universal credit. Please visit our website for more information about the service: http://www.duwc.org.uk/

Our local Nottingham hospitals, the Queens Medical Centre (QMC) and the Nottingham City Hospital (NCH), are struggling to provide patients with adequate care at acceptable standards. Waiting times at A&E are rising, there is a shortage of beds and many patients are either bed ‘blocking’ due to lack of suitable accommodation to move on to, or being discharged prematurely. The same is true of most hospitals throughout England.At the same time NUH Senior Management are demanding hard-pressed and overworked staff members make more cost-saving cuts in the care they provide. This is probably impossible without a drastic deterioration in the standard of patient care. Organised by Nottingham & Notts Keep Our NHS Public through 38 Degrees. Your personal information will be kept private and held securely. By submitting information you are agreeing to us keeping you informed about Nottingham & Notts Keep Our NHS Public campaigns. For further info please contact [email protected]

Protect the 10 overnight nursing beds at Babington hospital. Babington Hospital faces closure. This means up to 18 beds for rehabilitation, palliative and end-of-life care are being lost. The Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) claim that the nursing beds will be provided at Ashbourne, Ripley and Ilkeston. This presents immense problems for people who have to travel. Furthermore there are questions about capacity and there is no guarantee that these beds will remain available. The strategy is to cut 535 beds across the county in the NHS. There has been no full, open and public consultation over the closures of Babington hospital and the loss of nursed beds. Make no mistake. These nursing beds will be lost if we do not object now. Please make your voice heard by completing the questionnaire in the link below. There is little room for expression other than using the free text box at the end to reject the Engagement Process and call for a full public consultation: http://www.southernderbyshireccg.nhs.uk/have-your-say/engagements/belper-health-services/

We don't just use libraries to borrow books - we use them for reading, we use them for researching, we use them for the Internet services they provide and we need libraries to foster our learning. Older people need libraries, adults and young adults need libraries - and families need libraries. ... and this means libraries with trained librarians, not just volunteers. In spite of much deprivation and poor Internet access, Highbridge and many other similar communities are now growing - new houses being built and new young families moving into the area - this town needs a hub for its local services. What better place than the library? The current library opening hours provide only restricted access to library services - the town is expanding - this service needs expanding. The County Council has kept open the Highbridge Children's Centre and should be using the same arguments for investing in the Library. The Highbridge library is a valuable information hub - not only for the residents of Highbridge itself, but all those many, otherwise isolated, users in the outlying areas, some of which may only have mobile library access now, e.g. Mark, Walrow, Isleport, Bason Bridge & Watchfield. These are users who can get to Highbridge Library using the existing (yet slender) public transport links. Burnham on Sea Library is just one further step away. For a young parent with little children in Highbridge, it has been calculated that it costs £9.00 to get public transport to Burnham and back - but you can walk to the Highbridge Library! "Google Can Bring You Back 100,000 Answers. A Librarian Can Bring You Back the Right One." Neil Gaiman "Cutting libraries in a time of recession and austerity is like cutting hospitals during a plague." (adapted from Eleanor Crumblehulme library assistant)

PASNAS is not in financial difficulty. The unnecessary proposals will transfer all of the risk of the financial markets entirely onto the shoulders of the scheme members themselves, and damage the futures of the University's dedicated and hard-working support staff, leaving them without adequate financial security in their retirement. This pension is part of our pay package; the proposals actually represent a pay cut. They could impact support staff at other Universities (who have similar pension schemes) and also in the wider public sector, where there has been a constant erosion of Terms and Conditions, and pay cuts resulting in many low-paid workers having to struggle to make ends meet.

The Whitdale family centre is set to be closed by the Local West Lothian council due to budget cuts. This centre has helped hundreds of families to overcome issues they battle with in their everyday life. It helps them to build positive relationships and receive vital support while they spend time away from isolation. The centre also provides support for children's early education and helps many young children to build positive relationships with their families and peers. The nursery provides that extra help for a child to move on to education like nursery and primary school, helping them with positive behaviour and development. We are asking as many people as possible to help us by signing this petition, asking the council to not take the family centre away from vulnerable people. If enough of us sign this petition, we can show the council that this service should not be cut.

Our city has been hit by cut after cut- a fact clearly evidenced by the rubbish on our streets and the state of our closes. Residents of Glasgow deserve safe and clean streets with a well funded and reliable refuse service. Glasgow City Council have told GMB Scotland Trade Union that they have no plans to renew the contracts of over 100 temporary cleansing workers who were added to the service when our city was at the point of crisis last year. This means that on April 1st, Glasgow will see a 12% cut across the board to street cleansing services. We hope that, with the public's support, we can save jobs and clean up our city

In King's Lynn, one of only two local residential respite units which supports many children with disabilities and Complex Needs has been earmarked for other usage. The remaining unit has only four beds and cannot accommodate all the children affected by this decision. Although Norfolk have a legal obligation to provide short breaks for disabled children, the council has still decided to shut it down. Residential Respite such as Morley House is essential to the well-being of these disabled children (who have already been assessed as needing the highest level of support) and their families who depend on the time to give other siblings or family members support, and access parts of everyday life (such as shopping, medical appointments and household maintenance it is difficult or impossible to do safely while caring for their disabled child). They allow children to make friends and try activities and days out which other children take for granted. Without access to Morley House, many of these children will be denied what every child should have, a life with friends where they can enjoy experiences in a safe environment with people who can understand and support them. In addition to the use as a residential respite unit, Morley House is also used to house educational boarders from the local Complex Needs School. This provision is part of their education. For my family and many others Morley House is a lifeline, the only place we know our child is safe and well looked after which enables us to relax and meet the needs of our younger child and give her the everyday experiences we cannot safely provide while caring for our older daughter, daytrips to the beach or even visits to the homes of family and friends are impossible apart from the times our older daughter is in respite. We need your support to reverse this decision and ensure our children and the many children who will come after ours still have access to this essential service.

Personally, I often forget to donate to food banks until I see the crate at the exit of the supermarket, and by then I'm all packed up and ready to go home. Of course, I could be more aware, and work on making it become a habit, but at the moment, I'm not very tuned in, although I'd love to be! Anyway, when I do my online grocery shop, which I am now trying to do on a more regular basis, I thought there was a significant change that could be made which would allow me to donate to food banks whilst doing the shop. For example, when I get my two tins of tuna for a discounted price, I could add one of those tins of tuna into a separate 'food bank' list. Rather than delivering these items to me, they could go straight into a food bank deposit system. Obviously it would need to be a simple user interface that doesn't get mixed up and confuse people and suddenly you receive the items you were trying to donate and the food bank receives the full order... So it could be quite difficult to do (I've got no idea, I don't work in systems!). Anyway, this is just an idea that I believe could work really well and could result in some valuable relationships between supermarkets and those in need.

Children would no longer have the opportunity to receive quality and accessible free music lessons in their schools. This would also mean that school ensembles run by instrumental instructors would no longer exist. Removing the Instrumental Music Service (IMS) from mainstream schools would have a serious and damaging effect on the attainment gap, one of the West Lothian Council's main aims. This is because poorer children will not have access to a service which is very expensive outside school. It will also have a serious affect on the community, as many children in West Lothian actively use these free services. Music education has a countless number of benefits, inside and outside the classroom. From being an outlet of emotion, encouraging creativity, to building resilience, team-skills and self confidence. To the children of West Lothian, the IMS has proved to be of great importance in many people's lives. This cut from West Lothian Council would be a devastating decision, that should be stopped.

Marks and Spencer's Falmouth has proved itself an integral part of the community, the cafe is always thriving with its iconic views of Falmouth bay with many locals including regular old age pensioners not to mention the tourists. The store is always full and busy, I am sure I am not alone when I say that I rely on the local Marks and Spencer for food. Cornwall itself is suffering with many cuts, this is the last thing it needs this will decrease the morale of the town with all the other closures that are happening. The next local store is based in the next town Truro, which does not seem far stretched out the way but when you consider the cost of public transport this will prove too expensive to do a regular shopping trip, or for the poor workers that will now need to make their way to Truro. It would be a huge shame if the space was to be replaced by another Poundland or charity shop. Please support this petition and sign it.