We need to keep our children safe from harm or even a fatal accident

Young People need somewhere to go, that is warm and a safe space where they can feel listened to, supported and have social interactions with their peers. At Got2B we liken this to the following situation for the adults in society and ask how would adults feel if suddenly authorities axed all pubs, clubs, social centres, coffee shops and left you with only parks and recreation areas, with equipment that is out of date, not age appropriate and open to the elements? We believe there would be uproar, but Young People don’t have a voice and are unable to be heard by the people who have power to create change. That’s why we are bringing this to your attention. We want to present this to local Government and ask them to listen to their community and its Young People. We want them to reinstate/ provide free dedicated Youth spaces in our major towns. These spaces should be accessible to organisations supporting Young People, and offer professional Youth Clubs, guidance and support.

The cost of living crisis is punishing hard working people. It does not have to be this way! The Conservative government is choosing to shield and protect the wealthy, at the cost of hard working people!

Since the start of government imposed austerity 12 years ago, the council has lost £110m of central government funding while demand for services has soared. Over ten years of pay freezes our workers have lost an average of £4-8000 a year in pay, while house prices and rents have soared. We need to keep our key workers and young families in the city for it to thrive, but we can’t do that if we can’t pay them properly. Across the country councils are struggling to retain workers - from social workers to care workers, teaching assistants and planners - thousands are leaving public service for better paid jobs in the private sector. This is a potential disaster for our councils and our services. Government needs to act now to avert a crisis, yet the autumn budget statement had nothing to offer local councils other than more stagnation and a greater council tax burden on already struggling residents. As millions in the country are bracing themselves to have to choose between heating and eating and mass poverty is becoming normalised, councils across the country are going to have to choose between jobs or services. As our residents face one of the toughest winters in living memory, they must not again be expected to pay for mistakes they did not make. They need to know their local councils are getting the support they need from government, not watch them be slowly starved of cash and resources while the government pursues policies that make the rich richer. It’s often the case that trade unions and employers disagree. It is also often the case that different political parties disagree. But these are extraordinary times, times where no-one in our city is free from the anxiety and pressures of the cost-of-living crisis. Times where it is essential that we focus on what unites us, and to work together to protect our vital public services and those that rely on them. Brighton and Hove UNISON, the Green Administration and Labour Councillors at Brighton & Hove City Council are coming together in solidarity with other local trade unions, organisations, charities and businesses, to demand that central government properly fund local public services and public service workers. We are united in the need for well-funded public services and united in the need for a workforce that is decently paid. Corinna Edwards-Colledge, Joint Branch Secretary, Brighton and Hove UNISON; Cllr Phelim Mac Cafferty, Leader, Brighton and Hove City Council and Green Group; Cllr John Allcock and Cllr Carmen Appich, Joint Leaders, Labour Group. Also supported by GMB Sussex Branch and Brighton & Hove NEU.

Please sign the petition demanding a public consultation on the use of the Central Library building as both an adult education facility and a much reduced public library service. We have campaigned, along with other organisations, for 2 years, to save Stockport's 109 years old Central Library with all of its services. We were overjoyed when a meeting of the full Council, in January 2022, voted to object to the resolution of the Cabinet to go ahead with ending the public library services at the Carnegie endowment library despite petitions totalling over 8,000 signatures; opposition to closure in the Council's own pubic consultation; and opposition from 3 of the Council's scrutiny committees. Despite the Council resolution, the Cabinet pressed ahead regardless, However, at the Annual Meeting of the Council in May 2022, the old Cabinet was ousted. Shortly afterwards, the new Council Leader, Cllr. Hunter announced that the policy on Central Library would be reviewed. We wrote to him calling for the review to be "an ambitious, not a defensive one", asking that consideration be given to redeveloping the Borough’s heritage Central Library, as other Councils have done, instead of moving library services to the Council owned Merseyway shopping centre, as the predecessor Cabinet had intended. We also called for the proposals emanating from the review to be put to public consultation. Cllr. Hunter replied, outlining the new plan and rejecting the call for consultation. He reiterated the Cabinet’s rejection of the call for public consultation in reply to a public question which we put to the full Council meeting on 6th October 2022. The question and reply can be viewed on the official webcast (see https://tinyurl.com/ytyxr2me or https://fb.watch/gc4W2ATenP/) The plan has now been approved by the Cabinet, without public consultation. It will, if implemented, move the greater part of Central Library services, including the Local Archives and Heritage Library, to the Merseyway shopping centre. The remaining book stock at the Carnegie would comprise only "the most popular adult fiction titles"; "a selection of non-fiction that will complement the adult education services" and "a selection of junior and children’s fiction". The reference to adult education services relates to the new plan’s proposal to move the Stockport Continuing Education service into the Carnegie building from another grade II listed heritage building, the former Hollywood Park school. This announcement tells us nothing about the intended fate of the vacated school. Floor plans submitted to the Cabinet show that only 18% of the floor area of the Carnegie building would comprise the reduced library service. The new plan would see almost a third of opening hours at the Carnegie library being unstaffed. This system, called by the Council ‘Open+’, has been introduced already in a number of branch libraries, in order to make budgetary cuts in staffing costs. Moreover, a Manchester Evening News article, dated 7th October 2022 reports a ratcheting up of this process, “Libraries service review - £180,000 Under this proposal there would be an increase in self-service (Open Plus) hours at libraries across the borough - meaning longer periods during which facilities are unstaffed. This would see a roll-out of self-service technology as well as a review of the amount of money spent on new books”. Finally, the ‘elephant in the room’ for the Council leadership is surely the question : ‘How will the future of the Archives Service, the Heritage Library, and the overwhelming bulk of the book stock and services of Central Library, be safeguarded by moving these facilities to a shopping centre which, having been valued at £86 million upon its acquisition in 2016, is now valued at £15.6 million and which requires £5.5 million expenditure on prevention of structural deterioration and rainwater ingress from its roof top car park?’ {Sources : Council Statements of Accounts, 2017/18, pages 64/66 and 2021/22, page 79; https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/stockport-to-sign-off-5-5m-merseyway-works/ } . On 6th October, we wrote to all Councillors calling for their support for public consultation (see the letter here https://tinyurl.com/vd3wemp6 ). This would be entirely consistent with the stand that the Council took in January and is appropriate in view of the far reaching nature of the new plan. We will petition and campaign for support for this demand. Please share the petition widely with friends and colleagues. Stockport United Against Austerity

Our new report shows that from the £240,000 that we receive via HCC Community Grants, we are able to save the public purse at least £312,418 every year – at least £72,000 per year more than we receive in total from the grants. Not only this, but the savings to older people’s lives are even greater. Following a survey of the older people who access our services and activities in Hampshire we found: • 57% felt that activities and services that they engaged with help to reduce their feelings of isolation and loneliness. • 86% who took part in exercise classes (such as strength and balance groups, cheerleading and tai chi) felt that the services improved their physical fitness. • 16% of service users (325 of 2,300) said that accessing services and activities provided by the Community Grants delayed them needing to access social care services in 2021 • 1 in ten (244 of 2,300) service users told us that these services reduced their need to access health services as a result of ill health. We need your support to stop these life-saving grants from being cut so we can keep enabling older people in Hampshire to live later life well, please add your voice to the campaign and sign the petition below. You can help to share this petition on social media using the hashtag #SaveHampshireServices If you would like to add your views to Hampshire County Council’s consultation directly please visit the HCC website at: https://www.hants.gov.uk/AHC-consultation Read our full report here: https://mha.org.uk/savehampshireservices

Coeliac disease/gluten sensitivity is for life. It's hard enough having the condition without been deprived of much loved and missed products. Coeliac disease is on the rise. We need more education on it. Unless there is a cure in the future, there is no alternative currently but to stick to a gluten free diet for life. More products need to be made available and M&S has gone right downhill. We need to change others attitudes towards coeliac disease. Listen to what your customers want and want to buy - BRING BACK YOUR FULL GLUTEN FREE RANGE.

We have just been through a historical time in human history. Never before have we seen such devastation. Covid-19 hit us all hard, thousands of businesses went bust. Many new claims were made to the Universal Credit system as families were plunged into poverty as their livelihoods were taken from them as the virus ravaged our towns and cities. The Universal Credit system is a lifeline for millions of people in the UK and the £20 per week deduction is going to cripple families who have been plunged into the benefit system through no fault of their own. Let's face it, £20 per week may not sound like a lot to many of you, but to claimants of the benefit system it is a fortune. This money is a week's food shopping! A weeks gas and electricity for our top up meters! This government has decided to reduce the allowance just as the winter hits us. What do we tell our children as they sit in the cold house this winter and ask why they can't have the heating on? Families are going to have to choose to literally eat or heat this winter with this deduction. A DEDUCTION THAT THE POPULATION OF THE UK DID NOT GET CHANCE TO VOTE ON! I want to inform the POPULATION of this country, the government is here to serve us, and do as we collectively say. Not the other way round! It's not rocket science is it? Those who are on higher salaries should be willing and able to help the poorest in our society by paying just a small increase on their national insurance stamp to help fund the extra £20 per week rise in Universal Credit. Or we could add a fraction of a penny to fuel prices to pay for this extra £20 per week allowance. This country has a moral obligation to help those who were hit the hardest by the covid-19 virus and were plunged into the welfare system. So this petition is for the masses of the country, the population of this country to HAVE THEIR SAY ON THIS IMMORAL DEDUCTION. I implore you to sign this petition and let this Conservative government know that the majority of the UK population that they serve, do not want this deduction to be implemented and carried forward. We did not get the chance to have OUR SAY, now YOU CAN! BY SIGNING THIS PETITION. Do what is morally correct and let the people who serve us, and don't have a clue about the welfare system, and the cost of living know that we do not want this deduction to continue. People will die from this decision. Children will get sick, malnourished and depression will rise alarmingly by this simple £20 per week deduction. Take the money off those who are blessed enough to be able to help those who are less fortunate than themselves. It's not really a hard decision to make is it? Keep the £20 per week increase to the universal credit system and help the families in need during this time in humanity that has never been seen before. Share this petition far and wide. Let the public decide, as it is our country, with rules and systems that we ALL Want to live with. Thank you. Signed, A universal credit claimant

These charges are forcing people into debt and considerable hardship. It simply does not make sense to take legal action against people with Council Tax arrears, who cannot afford to pay, and then direct them to food banks to feed their children.

If you care about OUR planet Earth, you should sign this petition. Many people are going to suffer because of this and we need to try and stop it.

It is vital for our cultural wellbeing that we have a flourishing arts sector that is accessible to anyone with a talent and passion for the arts. If this cut goes ahead, only wealthy students will be able to study subjects such as music, drama and dance. This will not only stifle creativity and innovation in the arts, but have a hugely detrimental impact on an industry worth billions to the UK economy (music alone was worth £5.8 billion in 2019).

The Couper Institute and Library are important community facilities in the southside of Glasgow. Built in 1887, the Institute has served as an important venue for community groups and organisations for generations. The attached library was build in 1924 and is an important community resource we cannot lose. The Couper was under threat in the 1990s and the community came together to fight the closure - we need that same solidarity again. The Couper is noticeably missing from any reopening plans and this is extremely worrying. The community calls upon Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Life to ensure both the Institute and Library are reopened as soon as COVID regulations allow. The Couper must not be forgotten!