Justice is being denied to the people of Greater Manchester. Legal aid no longer covers most cases involving housing, welfare, debt, immigration or medical negligence. Between 2005 and 2015, the number of not-for-profit legal advice centres in the country fell from 2,226 to 1,462[1]. Greater Manchester went from having nine law centres across our ten boroughs to only having two. But, our ever-defiant community refused to accept this, and together we fought to restore and improve access to justice for people in poverty and vulnerability. It is thanks to this collective effort that the Greater Manchester Law Centre opened its doors in Moss Side last year, and we are making great strides to meet the advice and representation needs of those who need it most. We are fighting, together, for free access to justice. But we need more than words and encouragement, and we welcome your support for making similar legal services available across Greater Manchester. This is Manchester, and we do things differently here. Let’s lead the way and try something new, and implement the idea we dreamed up together. To survive, we need to be creative. Let’s fund our free, face-to-face, high quality legal advice and professional legal representation by imposing a levy on commercial law firms. Yours sincerely, Roz Burgin, Development Worker John Nicholson, Chair Norma Turner, Management Committee And community supporters of GMLC ** See media coverage of this open letter** Solicitors Journal: http://bit.ly/2sXV16h Law Society Gazette: http://bit.ly/2sSVMNg Our press release: http://bit.ly/2ugOGXm [1] http://www.fabians.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Access-to-Justice_final_web.pdf

they went without thought of their own safety into an inferno

Saffron Walden is already short of swimming pool capacity. The swimming pool at Walden School is in imminent danger of closing down. The Lord Butler pool is at capacity and now showing it’s age. Without another pool a bigger proportion of Saffron Walden’s children may not gain the important life skill of being able to swim. 20% of adults currently can’t swim because of this. Swimming is the most popular sport in the country and keeping community fit is vital for all age groups to reduce the future burden on the NHS. The 160 members of WaldenJNR, the largest junior triathlon club in the country, will have nowhere to swim without another pool.

1. This tragedy must not be used as the pretext for social cleansing. 2. Those who have suffered the trauma need all the stability possible: children must be able to attend their usual school; community links must be maintained with e.g. religious centres, GP surgeries.

We recognise that an effective response to the horrific events at Grenfell Tower is not forthcoming from the Central Government or the Local Council, and that therefore the responsibility for safety of Londoners, the old, the poor, the young and everyone else falls to the relevant authorities with the largest democratic mandate from us. We therefore call on the Greater London Authority, and it's head the Mayor of London as well as London Councils to fit out all high rise blocks in Greater London that do not have fire sprinkler systems installed with fire sprinklers as soon as practically possible by the end of this year and if necessary using public funds. We also ask that the London Assembly to hold the relevant authorities to account on this matter, to make sure that all Londoners feel safe enough to sleep in their homes by the end of the year.

My nan has lived on the 12th floor of a Shepherd's Bush Tower block for 40 years. She is 77, if a fire broke out in the flats on her floor or higher she couldn't be reached. She walks with a walker and wouldn't make it down the stairs. Who would save her ??? In light of the Grenfell Fire it's now More important than ever. The firefighters did an Amazing Job but they didn't have the resources to reach the top. This isn't their fault it's due to cuts, those victims had to wait for a crane from Surrey!

There is much evidence that "the political decision to appoint inquiries into public crises is strongly influenced by short-term blame avoidance considerations, media salience and government popularity." (Reflection in the Shadow of Blame: When Do Politicians Appoint Commissions of Inquiry? - The British Journal of Political Science, Volume 40, Issue 3 July 2010, pp. 613-634). An event such as the Grenfell Tower fire, with its clear implications of Government Minister involvement and possible culpability, requires an inquest which is truly independent from government; not set up and controlled by government. The right to life under Article 2 of the Human Rights Act requires that an effective and proper investigation be carried out into all deaths caused by the state. In particular the right requires that such an investigation must be: * Independent; * Effective; * Prompt; * Open to public scrutiny; and* * Support the participation of the next-of-kin. It is clear from historical evidence that public inquiries do not achieve these requirements. Since the appointment of a public inquiry is typically made by government ministers, events that involve allegations of blame on the part of the relevant minister are less likely to be investigated by a public inquiry

The public bowling greens in the Trafford area and indeed any other area provide an opportunity for people of all ages to participate in a sport which although quite gentle provides valuable exercise and fresh air to people taking part. Generally the game is played by older people and it provides a much needed physical and social activity to a number of people in the community. The greens have not been maintained efficiently and have been treated incorrectly with weed killer and fertiliser. The cutting of them has become very erratic and insufficient. It appears that the people doing the work on the greens are simply gardeners and not green keepers they need to be trained to look after greens correctly to provide greens suitable to play bowls on. Recent cost cutting exercises have resulted in a rapid decline in the condition of the public greens and this needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

I could have died.

Each year, 5,000 children under 16 are seriously injured or die on Britain’s roads. The incident rate for children peaks between 8am and 9am, when they are travelling to school, and again at 3pm when they are on their way home. Without the lollipop/ school crossing patrol service, the community will be put at risk as they try to cross such a busy road at peak times to and from school.

In February 2017 after months of negotiations trying to avoid compulsory redundancies triggered by deep budget cuts, EHRC management sent e-mails to 8 workers work addresses informing them they were being made redundant whilst they were taking part in a lawful one day protest strike. The EHRC still has over 47 equivalent vacancies these displaced workers could easily fill, but has so far refused to do so. What is so shocking is this employer also happens to be the UK's UN recognised guardian of our Human Rights! With Brexit uncertainty and challenges to Human Rights law being suggested, we need a strengthened fully resourced EHRC to defend the most vulnerable from discrimination and attack.

Imagine that pile of rubbish pictured creating a corresponding mountain of tax revenue from whomever is unnecessarily putting non-recyclable materials into the supply chain. In Germany, the supermarkets themselves have bins near the checkout area into which customers are tacitly invited to place their unwanted packaging items for the retailers to dispose of. We need to minimise the use of non-recyclable packaging in retail, especially our fresh food. I used to work at a labelling factory: there are other viable ways of packaging, tagging, labelling and barcoding products that do not entail use of non-recyclable products. Nor is there any need for food retailers to ask customers to use plastic bags to package products such as loose vegetables in for weighing at tills (they need to be transparent for the person on the till to identify what they're weighing). It used to be that loose items would be weighed by staff in the same way as at their delis, where barcoded labels would be produced for the till staff to scan at checkout. More recyclable products - not film, tetrapack, or anything else that is not widely recyclable - should be used. I also want to see a ban on the use of any non-recyclable disposable gloves used in food retailer outlets such as a well known sandwich retailer, whose staff seem to change gloves each time they touch meat and are then trained to put on new gloves when they make another sandwich: there must be a better way. Retailers could be taxed for the amount of packaging waste they put into the system , and for the amount of non-recyclable packaging they are bringing into the system from their plants and the products they bulk buy and sell on. This would reduce non-biodegradable waste in landfill, and encourage reduction of unnecessary packaging - I don't want film around a DVD or a cucumber - which are uniform in price anyway - so that the supermarket can put a barcode on that rather than the products directly. The UK should especially given the Brexit choice, prioritise innovation in packaging technology that could be sold to the world instead of perpetuating the inertia that seems to plague politicians on green issues (possibly for fear of upsetting sectors that lobby and contribute to the economy, and perhaps also donate to political parties). For example Amazon have reduced their non-recyclable packaging (although they do not apparently pay enough tax): we should take the principles and positive elements of what such global corporations do and apply them more widely, and look into other countries' green packaging solutions. Ministers should stop their myopia and short-termist electioneering campaigns over-focusing on natural greed and our desire to preserve individual wealth, and look at ways to boost our economy, further the manufacture and use of green technologies, reduce waste in landfill and increase tax revenue from the massive national and international corporations controlling our food industry and pricing. The reality is that all the larger supermarkets are trying to convince us that they are ethical and have a corporate social responsibility, and this would be a good way of demonstrating that they mean it. Not everyone I know on social media has awareness of green organisations trying to further this project as a common aim, but would support the idea of such a tax: even if they do not believe in recycling, the vast majority would like to have less recycling to do, and would agree with there being fewer non-recyclables in the supply chain and the notion that corporations should be paying more tax. Green issues and tax revenues affect us all - many excuse their failure to recycle because they say our species is hurtling toward its doom in any event. It is exactly that sort of attitude that is damaging our world: we should expend our energy on ways to save ourselves instead: if we can get to the moon why can't we stop over-relying on non-recyclable packaging?