***5000 signatures forces the Council to discuss the issue at a Council Meeting. Please only sign this petition if you live, work or use LD services in Somerset*** The transfer of Somerset’s Learning Disability Service from Somerset County Council to Discovery was promised as a means of ensuring sustainable care for people with a learning disability, with ‘no savings targets’. It is now clear, however, that to make the £4m saving predicted Discovery plan to make staff redundant, reduce the terms and conditions of those left, and possibly close day centres. By starving funding for adult social care Somerset County Council have handed Discovery the task of implementing cuts that will hit the care provided to vulnerable people. Cuts will lower morale, risk high staff turnover, and leave staff vacancies unfilled. Service users and their families were promised a sustainable service focused on the continuity of care delivered by experienced, knowledgeable and familiar staff. The cuts proposed will be highly detrimental to the delivery of personalised quality care. We are therefore calling on Somerset County Council to give LD Services the funding that it needs to ensure continued high quality care for vulnerable adults in Somerset. If the current cuts are progressed this will not be achieved.

The new government policies that came into force yesterday have been assessed as pushing an extra 200,000 children into poverty. One of the changes effectively punishes the 3rd child and treats them differently to their older siblings. It also places unbearable pressure on the mother to put in an official form whether she has been raped or not. Given that most rapes go unreported, or do not reach court due to the high attrition rates for sexual offences, how exactly are women in this position supposed to be able to prove their rape? How many women will choose not apply rather than relive the trauma of the assault? This new approach also penalises parents who already have a 3rd child, and who may need state support in the future due to their circumstances changing. Only their first 2 children are eligible for financial support, again effectively discriminating against the 3rd child. This is blatantly unfair, and against the rights of the child and the mother. It's crucial that this change is challenged and if necessary taken through the courts and all the way to the ECHR- for the sake of children and families. This needs to be challenged by all political parties to send a strong signal to the Government that it cannot get away with treating its citizens in this cruel and inhuman way.

As a member of the public I was somewhat distressed to learn that you have issued massive rent increases to GP surgeries in England which have been backdated to April 2016. According to Practice Business (3/4/2017) "The NHS lost 445 full-time GPs between September and December 2016" which are now down to 34,050 when the NHS promised to hire more. How will your rent increases encourage junior doctors to train as general practitioners? How is this supporting the health and wellbeing of all patients in England? Please retract these abhorrent rent increases immediately.

Children from nursery age 3 years up to high school age 16/18 safety & well being.

IVF is an amazing treatment that allows couples who have exhausted all other avenues a chance at conceiving their own child. Currently, despite the National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommending 3 cycles of treatment funded by the NHS, only one shot is allowed to couples here. Now the local clinical commissioning group are proposing to end this entirely. I know several women who have successfully conceived thanks to IVF funded by the NHS. One of them told me; 'I know firsthand how utterly devastating it can be to find you are unable to conceive naturally. The years my partner and I spent fruitlessly trying for a baby were beyond comparison the most difficult experience I have been through. I can’t express the relief when we were finally referred for fertility treatment on the NHS, or the joy when it worked. Fertility is a health issue and the NHS exists to look after everyone’s health. Treatment for infertility shouldn’t be something that’s only available to those who can afford to pay for it.” Imagine this opportunity being denied to people who cannot afford expensive private treatment? The proposals will save the regional NHS £700,000. A very small amount of money when you compare the figure to the £17.6m the NHS has been forced to spend on private management consultants to draw up new 'transformation' plans demanded by the government. We must not allow this option for couples to be ended. Please sign, share and ask your friends to sign, so that we can show that the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will not accept this miserable proposal going any further.

This helps special need children and children with challenging backgrounds and helps the teacher provide a better education for the other children to learn.

Prior to Storm Desmond I hadn't really comprehended what was involved or what was needed; before, during and after such an event. I thought that within a few months people would be okay, insurance companies, local and national government would step in, support and pick up the pieces. In the real world this isn't really what happens. Now 17 months down the line as an organisation we have over 650 flood affected clients on our books. We have supported over 20,000 homes and businesses throughout the UK with physical, email, social media and verbal support when they have been in crisis, emergency or disaster due to floods and other emergencies. This has accumulated a total of 104,000 volunteer hours over the past 17 months with little to no funds. We are now in a position that we need to find funds to keep going, with the continued ongoing support and needs of those who were flooded, physically, mentally and emotionally many are still suffering greatly. We have run on a shoe-string the past 17 months with only £153,000 in funding and donations spent to date. This only goes to show that we are extremely frugal with all funding and use every penny to it's best advantage. Overheads are as low as we can possibly make these with limited paid staff, relying on volunteers to make the organisation run. It's not "If we flood again, it's WHEN we flood again!"

We have seen an increase in Antisocial behaviour in Bridgwater being reported. Young people are being moved from one area to another but the antisocial behaviour moves with them. Youth Clubs in Bridgwater are being bombarded with more young people but they haven't got the resources to cope. Youth Services have been slashed and underfunded and we need to see an increase to deal with the problems we face. We need County Council to increase funding to enable dedicated youth workers to work with these young people to reduce antisocial behaviour and help make Bridgwater and its people feel safe.

Between August 2012 and December 2016 Amey the Council contractor felled over 4200 trees across Sheffield. Now they are planning to chop down 27 of our local street trees. Some of these trees are near the end of their life and should be replaced, many others are mature healthy trees that help to keep the air clean (1), protect our homes from flooding (2) and provide a habitat for local wildlife (3), as well as making our streets nicer and healthier places to live (4). Mature trees are particularly good at filtering out pollution (5), cooling the air in summer (6) and maintaining nature's delicate balance (7). Four of the trees are said to be damaging the pavement and are therefore discriminatory to disabled people and those using pushchairs. We believe the damage is minor and does not impair accessibility for disabled people, or the users of prams and pushchairs. Alternative highway engineering specifications (8), such as use of flexi-pave and/or pavement restructuring near trees, with kerb stones sculpted to accommodate roots, would represent a sustainable solution to the perceived problems. The other trees are said to be diseased or dangerous. Our experts say with sensible management and in some cases some pruning, the following 11 trees will thrive for many years and should be saved. Seabrook Rd/Stafford Road healthy mature sycamore (“damaging”) Tylney Rd healthy mature sycamore at no.7 (“damaging”) 52 Park Spring Drive - mature healthy cherry tree (“disease”) 76 Park Spring Way - mature healthy sycamore (“dangerous”) Opposite Norfolk Community School, Guildford Avenue – 2 mature whitebeam trees. (“dangerous/disease”) Norfolk Park Road 3 Horse Chestnuts grouped together near Sheffield College (“dangerous/disease”) Holdings Road (outside nos.7 and 31) Cherry Trees (“damaging”) The Council carried out a survey of households to see if people wanted to save the trees. This was deeply flawed as many houses and in some cases whole streets were missed out. References (1) Karl, T., Harley, P., Emmons, L., Thornton, B., Guenther, A., Basu, C., & Jardine, K. (2010). Efficient atmospheric cleansing of oxidized organic trace gases by vegetation. Science, 330(6005), 816-819.http://www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6005/816.short Escobedo, F., Kroeger, T. & Wagner, J. (2011). Urban forests and pollution mitigation: analyzing ecosystem services and disservices. Environmental Pollution, Volume 159, pp. 2078-2087.http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?cluster=14928633190131047233&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 (2) Trees and Design Action Group (2012). Trees in the Townscape: A Guide for Decision Makers, s.l.: Trees and Design Action Group.http://www.tdag.org.uk/trees-in-the-townscape.html Construction Industry Research and Information Association, 2013. CIRIA Research Project RP993: Demonstrating the multiple benefits of SuDS – A business case (Phase 2). Draft Literature Review. [Online] Available at: http://www.susdrain.org [Accessed 25 May 2015].http://www.susdrain.org/files/resources/ciria_guidance/ciria_rp993_literature_review_october_2013_.pdf (3) Ewers, R. M., & Didham, R. K. (2006). Confounding factors in the detection of species responses to habitat fragmentation. Biological Reviews, 81(01), p. 117-142. http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?cluster=1003233194462145743&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 Gilbert‐Norton, L., Wilson, R., Stevens, J. R., & Beard, K. H. (2010). A Meta‐Analytic Review of Corridor Effectiveness. Conservation Biology, 24(3), p. 660-668. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01450.x/full (4)Sarajevs, V. (2011). Health Benefits of Street Trees, Farnham: Forest Research. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fr/INFD-8JCEJH Williams, K., O'Brien, L. & Stewart, A.. (2013). Urban health and urban forestry: how can forest management agencies help?. Arboricultural Journal: The International Journal of Urban Forestry, Volume 35, pp. 119-133.http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03071375.2013.852358 (5) Shackell, A. & Walter, R. (2012). Greenspace Design For Health And Well-being, Edinburgh: Forestry Commission.http://www.forestry.gov.uk/PDF/FCPG019.pdf/$FILE/FCPG019.pdf Velarde, M., Fry, G. & Tveit, M. (2007). Health effects of viewing landscapes – Landscape types in environmental psychology. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Volume 6, p. 199-212.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1618866707000416 (6) Forestry Commission (2011). The UK Forestry Standard: The governments’ approach to sustainable forest management. 3rd ed. Edinburgh: Forestry Commission. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/ukfs (7) Gonzalez, A., Rayfield, B., & Lindo, Z. (2011). The disentangled bank: how loss of habitat fragments and disassembles ecological networks. American Journal of Botany, 98(3), p. 503-516.http://www.amjbot.org/content/98/3/503.full (8) Trees and Design Action Group. (2014) Trees in Hard Landscapes: A Guide for Delivery. TDAG http://www.tdag.org.uk/trees-in-hard-landscapes.html

The closure of Clay Cross Jobcentre will cause extra hardship to those who currently use it. Local people are already struggling under the burden of many cuts and loss of support. If Clay Cross Jobcentre was to close then claimants would have to attend either Markham Jobcentre in Chesterfield or Alfreton Jobcentre for their normal appointment once a fortnight. It will cost claimants £4.20 to travel to Chesterfield and back by bus or £6 to and from Alfreton. Single JSA/UC claimants are receiving £73.10 a week and this extra cost is equivalent to a 4% cut in benefits not to mention the extra time it takes. Single Mums and Dads and new families will incur extra inconvenience when children have to travel as well. While travel will be funded for claimants needing to sign on more than once a fortnight, the travel time for claimants signing each day (as is common at the start of a claim) will be more than 5 hours a week which is time that could be spent looking for work, or doing an activity that would help them increase their employability. A local mum said “My children will suffer if I had to spend more time traveling and I can’t see how we can make ends meet if we had to pay out another £6 a fortnight.” On the closure of Jobcentres the DWP states in its own proposal that: “…it is a reasonable expectation that claimants travel to an office within 3 miles or 20 minutes by public transport of their existing jobcentre.” According to the DWP own information the shortest distance is 5 miles and a minimum of 35 minutes travel by public transport to the two stated Jobcentre offices. All claimants who are job searching need somewhere to get online and our local library has only a few public terminals with limited opening hours. Several claimants we spoke to would be unable to meet their Claimant Commitment Agreement if the jobcentre was to close. These claimants are being set up to fail and the resulting sanctions will only make a bad situation worse. Clay Cross Jobcentre is a vital link to those claiming benefit locally and the closure of this office would only create more suffering in an already deprived community.

Many people rely on buses for a variety of reasons. We would like to see an expansion of bus services, in consultation with the public as to where these are most needed, and a campaign for greater use, rather than admitting defeat and contributing to the decline by cutting vital services which people need. This would have benefits in terms of cutting congestion and reducing climate change as well as reducing the social isolation which will only get worse if your new timetable is enacted.

The cut will leave young people in situations of abuse, or being thrown out of their family home, more vulnerable to sleeping rough. Government cuts to social care, youth services, children’s services and advice centres mean that those who become homeless are less likely to get support to help them out of their situation. The estimated number of rough sleepers in England has doubled since 2010. This is a national issue being spearheaded from Bradford which is the youngest city in the country and will be the youngest in Europe by 2020.