Firstly it astonishes me that public transport providers can get over 80 people on a bus without providing a single seat belt for its passengers. Some buses will travel along the motorway at 50mph+ and will be at the same if not an increased risk of being involved in an RTC, do we not deserve the right to protect ourselves against injury in the event of a collision? How is it illegal for one person in a small car to not wear a seat belt yet these bus companies can cram over 80 people onto a double decker bus and then travel at 50mph down the motorway without providing a single seat belt. Think about our children and elderly that are more fragile than the rest of us, surely they deserve a little extra protection. Please sign this petition so we can force public transport providers to act responsibly and protect us wherever possible. After all we are relying on one person who we've never met before to drive correctly and make the right decisions on a very busy highways network.

Last week was one of the coldest weeks we’ve had in a long time . Whilst out on the street we saw people sleeping in door ways with nowhere to go. Local support workers and people who work for homeless shelters told us they were completely packed and didn't have enough space to let in more people. Recently, in Bristol and London, homeless people have been dying on the streets from hyperthermia. In Brighton alone 17 people died in 2017. And last week a homeless man in Lincolnshire died in his tent. This cannot go on.

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.

As a college student who drives to college, I fill up my car with petrol around every 7-10 days. I am roughly putting in around £25-£30 every time. I am going to University in September and if I choose to commute (which may be the cheapest option), I will be driving 38.6 miles a day. As a student who is doing a full time course which is very time consuming, finding a way to earn money is crucial to survive. I am aware there is student discount for using public transport, for shops, restaurants etc. but what about reducing the price of fuel? I am a strong believer that this could benefit a lot of students. Petrol is so expensive. Driving my own vehicle will give me the flexibility to work after lectures.

Thanks to the Government's 'Right to Buy' Policy, local government are forced to offer Social Housing at heavily discounted prices - at approximately up to 70% of value - to elderly, disabled and vulnerable residents in Independent Living Accommodation; thus reducing the housing stock in Social Housing overall. Affordable Housing is only offered at 20% of value which most cannot afford. If residents cannot get social housing, either through an association or the council, they are forced into the more expensive - ON AVERAGE 4 TIMES AS MORE - private renting. For example: In the last six months, 130 Independent Living Accommodation Sites have been lost, never to replaced, amounting to 2% of the current total Social Housing within the Stroud Area alone; an issue that is being replicated across the United Kingdom.

I grew up on Edgeside, many residents of the valley will know about its difficult history. In 2002 Rossendale Borough Council was ranked as one of the worst in the country for local authority homes after previous administrations had left the properties to decay. Recently, there have been concerns raised about regeneration schemes, empty homes, homelessness, and planning decisions made in the area. However, these have been ongoing issues for the area for decades and have been challenging for parties of all colours. Previous empty homes initiatives haven't worked, including recent attempts and earlier ones, such as the Pathfinder initiative. Several changes of Council haven't lead to these issues being fully addressed either, but I believe that a change of how the council structures their work would make a real difference. A scrutiny committee is a missing constant and there are many issues around housing which need to be looked into in depth. Over the past year, 5 out of 10 of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings have considered housing issues. This takes away from the chance to discuss non-housing matters, without giving housing the focus that it warrants. I believe these challenges deserve a scrutiny committee of their own which brings together a range of services. The Government have cut funding to councils over the past few years. This leaves many councils under-funded and over-stretched. Ours is no different. While initiatives in Edgeside have seen the area transformed, this has only been possible by working in partnership with the local community (including community groups like the White Horse Project). Yet, several challenges continue in other areas of the valley and policy. A scrutiny committee, which is open to the public, would allow the council to work more closely with its residents. Together we could glean some insight into what might be the most effective changes, focus our efforts on bringing them into fruition, and solve some of the issues facing our friends and neighbors.

Prison leaders, from local to national, presided over an “abject failure” to provide a safe, decent and purposeful regime at HMP Liverpool, according to Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. In a report outlining jail conditions that experienced inspectors regarded as the worst they could remember, Mr Clarke said it was “hard to understand how the leadership of the prison could have allowed the situation to deteriorate to this extent.” Inspectors found squalid living conditions, with dirt, litter, rats and cockroaches, and an environment in which drugs were easily available and violence had increased. Mr Clarke added: “While much of what we found was clearly the responsibility of local prison managers, there had been a broader organisational failure. We saw clear evidence that local prison managers had sought help from regional and national management to improve conditions they knew to be unacceptable long before our arrival, but the resulting support was inadequate and had made little impact on outcomes for prisoners.” HMP Liverpool is a local category B prison serving the Merseyside area. A traditional local jail with “a very strong sense of local identity”, it held 1,115 men at the time of the unannounced inspection in September 2017. It was last inspected in May 2015. Since then, the prison had deteriorated in terms of respect and purposeful activity and these elements were poor, the lowest possible assessment, in 2017. Safety and resettlement work, the two other key inspection tests, were judged as ‘not sufficiently good.’ However, Mr Clarke said, the bare statistics “do not adequately describe the abject failure of HMP Liverpool to offer a safe, decent and purposeful environment.” He identified key issues: Violence of all kinds had increased. Over a third of prisoners felt unsafe at the time of the inspection, and 71% felt unsafe at some time. Nearly two-thirds of prisoners said it was easy or very easy to obtain drugs. Drones carrying drugs and other illicit items were a substantial problem. Staff had recovered 32 drones in the six months before the inspection, more than one a week. Half of the prisoners were locked in their cells during the working day. There were also significant failings in the leadership and management of activities and in health care. There was a backlog of some 2,000 maintenance tasks and it was clear that facilities management at the prison “was in a parlous state.” Mr Clarke added: “The inspection team was highly experienced and could not recall having seen worse living conditions than those at HMP Liverpool. “Many cells were not fit to be used and should have been decommissioned. Some had emergency call bells that were not working but were nevertheless still occupied, presenting an obvious danger to prisoners. There were hundreds of unrepaired broken windows, with jagged glass left in the frames. Many lavatories were filthy, blocked or leaking. There were infestations of cockroaches in some areas, broken furniture, graffiti, damp and dirt. “I saw piles of rubbish that had clearly been there for a long time, and in which inspectors reported seeing rats on a regular basis. I was told by a senior member of staff that it had not been cleared by prisoners employed as cleaning orderlies because it presented a health and safety risk. It was so bad that external contractors were to be brought in to deal with it. In other words, this part of the jail had become so dirty, infested and hazardous to health that it could not be cleaned.” Mr Clarke was particularly troubled by the case of one vulnerable man with complex mental health needs being held in a cell that had no furniture other than a bed. “The windows of both the cell and the toilet recess were broken, the light fitting in his toilet was broken with wires exposed, the lavatory was filthy and appeared to be blocked, his sink was leaking and the cell was dark and damp. “Extraordinarily, this man had apparently been held in this condition for some weeks…It should not have needed my personal intervention for this man to be moved from such appalling conditions.” Inspectors could see “no credible plan” to address these basic problems. Mr Clarke said: “Although there are several change projects underway at the prison, none of these will address the basic failings that were so painfully obvious at HMP Liverpool. I was particularly concerned that there did not appear to be effective leadership or sufficiently rigorous external oversight to drive the prison forward in a meaningful way. This report makes it crystal clear that leaders at all levels, both within the prison and beyond, had presided over the failure to address the concerns raised at the last inspection.” Michael Spurr, Chief Executive of Her Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service, said: “The conditions which Inspectors found at Liverpool were unacceptable and effective measures should have been taken to deal with the issues at a much earlier stage. We are committed to fixing this, have already made changes where we can, and have today published a comprehensive action plan to address the Chief Inspector’s concerns.Following the Inspection we took immediate action to rectify the situation. A new Governor has been appointed and a strengthened management team is in place; capacity has been reduced by 172 places; over 700 prisoners now have a named Prison Officer as their ‘Key Worker’; cleanliness has been improved and the maintenance backlog has been almost halved. Liverpool has a dedicated staff who are committed to providing a safe and decent environment for prisoners. The Governor will get the support she needs to deliver the action plan and make the changes necessary to substantially improve the performance and conditions at the prison.”

Northern Ireland has the highest suicide rates in the UK but 25% less funding. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/northern-ireland-has-highest-rate-of-suicide-in-the-uk-but-mental-health-funding-is-25-less-36418579.html In fact, in a recent study of suicide rates and reported on by the Guardian (link below) Northern Ireland has had more suicides in the 20 years since the Good Friday agreement in 1998 than in 28 years during the troubles from 1969 - 1997. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/20/northern-ireland-suicides-troubles-death-toll We the undersigned find this situation cruel and unacceptable and it has to change. Since Northern Ireland is receiving an extra £1bn in funding we demand that...... 1. The Department of Health commit to an increase of funding to mental health services of at least 10% from the £1bn extra funding for Northern Ireland secured by the DUP after the last General election. 2. The current £7m per year allocated to suicide prevention through the Public Health Agency be increased to £21m per year from the £1bn extra funding for Northern Ireland secured by the DUP after the last General election. 3. An effective, sustainable and long-term suicide prevention campaign to begin at the earliest opportunity

The Doctor Beeching style axe hanging over these vital bus services means we must work together to save vital bus services this is a great way of doing it with the Coastliner and Coasthopper running together its needed so lets do it ok!

Thurrock and the surrounding area has a ever expanding population,this Hospital should be retained to provide the NHS Services now in situ and if anything this should be expanded to serve local needs.The transport services that would provide for the planned restructuring now under consultation about changes to our Essex Hospitals are totally inadequate at present and it is time to make your voice heard.Please sign if you wish to a least try to save Orsett Hospital.

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/

Suicide prevention hotlines work incredibly hard every day to save endless lives and the fact they get paid only a little more than minimum wage is terrible.