Following the overwhelming success of England’s women at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada last year – with semi-final viewing figures peaking at 2.4 million on the BBC despite an 11pm kick-off, and with the third-place playoff victory against Germany drawing a peak of 2.5 million viewers despite a 10pm kick-off – it's time that our women get equal broadcast coverage on free-to-air television as their male counterparts. Given that the women took England to their highest finish in a World Cup competition since the men won in 1966, we should be celebrating their sporting achievement, and the massive rise in popularity in women's football, both professional and at grassroots level, over the past decade.

Every year Local Authorities spend millions of pounds of your money on the purchase of services from private companies. Any attempt to find out how much money is being spent on a specific contract under the Freedom of Information Act is denied on the basis that the information "Commercial in Confidence" Whilst such a defence is legitimate during the bidding process,once a contract has been let then Council Tax payers are entitled to know how much is being spent on any particular contract in order to judge whether or not it represents value for money. Please support this petition to insist that the Minister grants the powers to Local Authorities enabling them to become totally accountable to their electorates

No two schools are alike. But the government doesn't seem to agree. It wants to rush through plans to force every single school in England to become an academy the type of school paid for by taxpayers, but run by businesses, sponsors or trusts. Many teachers and parents are already standing against the plans, saying that they're "a step towards privatisation", ignore local views, and could force some schools to close. One size does not fit all, and local parents and teachers should have a say in the future of our school. ------ If this isn't your local school, click here to sign your local petition, or start one if no-one else has yet: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/start-a-campaign-for-your-school

Staff who clean HM Revenue and Customs offices are overworked and undervalued. Paid just the minimum wage, they have now been told they must shoulder the cost of introducing the government’s so-called “national living wage” through cuts in their hours and jobs. Their employment follows a familiar pattern. HMRC handed the contract to a private company, Mapeley, in 2001. Mapeley set up another firm, Salisbury, to handle the contract, which in turn subcontracts the work to the global firm ISS Facility Services. This arrangement blurs the lines of responsibility. ISS insists it is bound by its contract, while the others claim they cannot intervene as they are not the direct employer. It is inconceivable that the money cannot be found to pay the cleaners a wage that allows them to afford a basic standard of living. Added to this, cleaners currently only receive statutory sick pay and holiday entitlement. We do not believe they should have fewer rights than the civil servants they work alongside in HMRC. We are campaigning not just against the threat of cuts to hours and staff, but for equal treatment with HMRC’s own employees. And we are demanding that both the department and the contractor face up to their responsibilities to these low-paid workers.

This valuable service in Andover since being taken over by Brighterkind has been left to run down and set up to fail. The only reason for closure is domiciliary care is not part of Brighterkind's portfolio although financially it breaks even. High Care have provided excellent service over a number of years and has won awards in the area for outstanding service. The service carries out government policy, providing care in the home and is the only domiciliary service that carries out palliative care.....the residents of Andover cannot afford to loose this valuable provision.

The Westway is the only cinema in Frome and has been a loved part of our entertainment and social life for decades. We would like to register the Westway as an asset of community value to ensure its primary use remains as a cinema and entertainment venue, for the benefit of current and future generations.

These two post office's are essential to these two village's and the community as a whole, it could and would cause lots of problems for the people who live in them.

This is a dreadful decision to close the main post office in Aberystwyth which is always very busy to my knowledge, and much needed by the local community. Please support this campaign to reverse this decision.

Abandoning codes of practice for farm animal welfare is not in the best interests of the animals or those who will ultimately consume an animal raised in poorer conditions. The RSPCA said it has been voicing concerns for the past three years about the “downgrading” of the guidelines from statutory codes to industry-led guidance and criticised the lack of transparency around the process. The meat industry has had many scandals over the years and weakening regulations can only increase animal suffering and impact those consuming meat reared under poorer quality conditions.

We the undersigned hereby call on all at Teignbridge District Council - district councillors; Simon Thornley, Ian Perry, and the other planning officers; Nicola Bulbeck, the chief executive officer; and Cllr Jeremy Christophers, the council leader - to put the safety of human lives in Dawlish first, before any further houses are built in the DA2 development. The three separate developers involved in Teignbridge District Council’s DA2 draft framework agreement, planning to build over 1000 new houses on adjoining land plots, are permitted to build and sell 50 houses each on their 3 separate developments, before Teignbridge considers it necessary to start to build the link road, from the Gatehouse Farm housing development, over the Shutterton Brook, through the Secmaton Farm housing development, and to the roundabout at Sainsburys to join the A379. Until then, Teignbridge District Council think it is acceptable to have all the construction traffic over residential roads such as Elm Grove Drive and Sandy Lane. With this logic, the people of Dawlish would be required to wait for 150 houses to be built, sold, and inhabited, before the new road is started. 150 houses will not appear overnight, so the people of Dawlish, especially: - residents on Elm Grove Road, Elm Grove Drive, and Sandy Lane; children attending the Gatehouse primary school, Dawlish Community College, Red Rock Youth Centre, and Dawlish United Youth Football and Mini Soccer FC; and people attending the leisure centre and playing fields - would have to endure many months of colossal amounts of heavily laden construction trucks, contractors’ vans, noise, extra traffic, and pot holes. These residential roads are not designed and built to endure months and years of heavy vehicles. Indeed they are already crumbling with numerous pot holes. We call on Teignbridge District Council to show the people of Dawlish the respect that is shown to Newton Abbot and Teignmouth, and to find the funds to build a service road for construction vehicles to use before any further building in the DA2 area developments. These funds will be repaid by the developers as they build the houses. If Teignbridge District Council can find in its reserves £13 million for a new shopping centre in Newton Abbot, and £2.5 million towards the Pavilions in Teignmouth, then the cost can surely be found to build a ‘base core’ service link road to be built before the construction of 150 new houses begins. Devon County Council has already agreed to funding the main bridge costs. The people of Dawlish should not have to wait for a fatality to happen on our streets before Teignbridge District Council realises that human lives are worth a whole lot more than 150 houses.

The continued exclusion of overseas pensioners from up-rating adjustments to their State Pensions means that the real terms incomes of those affected falls year-on-year. Over time this leads to hardship, poverty, loss of independence and loneliness. Some individuals have been forced to return to the UK, away from loved ones, just to get by. This policy also creates a barrier to pensioner emigration from the UK, as the prospect of a frozen pension means that many feel they simply couldn't afford to do so. Given the countries involved are largely in the Commonwealth, those in British Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities are disproportionately impacted. There is no dispute about the entitlement to receive a State Pension overseas. All British pensioners who have made the required NI contributions during their working life are eligible. The issue at stake is whether that pension is universally uprated or not. At the moment, the government's policy is inconsistent and unfair, with half British pensioners abroad getting up-rated and the other half excluded. This creates crazy anomalies i.e. uprating in the USA, frozen pensions in Canada. It is time for reform to give all pensioners the full state pension they deserve, wherever they live, and to end this injustice once and for all. A positive, and easily affordable, step forward would be for the Government to include all pensioners in the 2.7% State Pension up-rating to be granted this year, by withdrawing the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Regulations 2016 currently before parliament. CASE STUDIES: Anne Puckridge Former college lecturer Anne Puckridge, now 91, lived and worked in the UK all her working life, paying mandatory NI contributions throughout this time. In 2002, aged 77 she finally retired and decided to move to Canada to be with her daughter and grandchildren who had moved to Calgary in the 1990s. Fourteen years on, Anne, who served as an intelligence officer in the Women’s Royal Navy in the Second World War, is struggling to live on the frozen £75.50 a week rate, she was entitled to when she moved abroad. Anne now feels that she will be forced to move back to Britain, because her pension will no longer cover day to day expenses and she is increasingly reliant on her daughter to get by. Anne says: “It’s the small things, and the injustice, that is really getting to me. I value my independence, but I can’t go on living on the breadline and I don’t want to inflict this on my family. As well as ever-increasingly poverty, I feel a sense of stress and shame, which is affecting my health.” Abhik Bonnerjee Abhik Bonnerjee, now 73, moved from India to Glasgow in 1960. He worked in the UK for 38 years, in shipbuilding, steel manufacture and the food industry. He owned an Indian restaurant for 6 years. Abhik returned to India in 1997 and reached the State Pension retirement age in 2008 when it was paid at £87.30 a week. Having made all the required NI contributions, if Abhik still in the UK today he would get £115.95, 28% more. The decline in his real terms income has left Abhik concerned about losing his home. He now feels he may have to move back to the UK. Abhik says: “The current situation makes me very, very angry. The government are scaremongering… [The Minister] says it will cost a lot of money but it is only a tiny percentage [of the pensions budget]. The government should be doing more, especially for Commonwealth countries and MPs can’t explain why they are not.” Rita Young Rita Young, 78, lives in Peterborough in the UK. She retired in 2002, aged 67, having enjoyed a long career in market research and as a community volunteer. Rita’s son moved to work in Australia some time ago and now has a family there. Since being widowed Rita has wanted to join her son and grandchildren in Australia, but has felt unable to do so due to the prospect of a frozen pension. As she gets older Rita finds daily life increasingly difficult, especially as she doesn’t have a family around who she can call on. She is deeply saddened that she is not able to be with her family during the later stages of her life, and feels that it is a complete injustice that had her son moved to a different country (e.g. France or the USA) she would be able join him with a full UK pension. Rita has spoken at the National Pensioners Convention about the issue and is very active in her community. Rita says: “I worked and contributed to my State Pension all my life. It doesn't seem fair that the government can just stop uprating it because I want to be with my family.” Geoff Amatt Geoff Amatt from Abergele in Wales reached 100 last year. Geoff contributed to the UK economy all his life and fought for his country during the Second World War. Geoff’s daughter Jean emigrated to Calgary, Canada more than 40 years ago, yet Geoff was unable to follow in the knowledge that his State Pension would be frozen at the rate of leaving the country. £29 per week at the time. As a result Geoff has been separated from his two grandchildren and two great grandchildren throughout his retirement. He has lived alone, largely dependent on the state for care, since his wife died seven years ago. Jean says: “Frozen pensions are unbelievably unfair. Canadians get their pension uprated in they live in the UK yet we don’t offer the same for those moving in the other direction. The government is keeping families apart and I worry about my father left all alone in Britain while we’re thousands of miles away.”

The Cineworld Hammersmith building was originally opened in 1934 as the Regal Cinema, and has since been operated by many chains, including ABC, Canon, Virgin, UGC, and Cineworld. This is the only cinema left in Hammersmith, and the most historic cinema operating in the area, with the devastating closure of the Art Deco Odeon Kensington. For some reason, this beautiful building is not listed, and so time and time again Developers are demolishing picture houses like this one in order to build luxury flats. This is the last thing West London needs. West London needs a cinema, and this is the perfect building to house it. At meetings and petitions residents have expressed no desire for this building to be demolished, yet Granger PLC and Helical Bar PLC, who, according to their website, 'create shareholder value through a wide variety of high margin activities with property investment at our core', seem to not care about the resident's requests, which makes this petition so necessary. I, alongside many other Hammersmith and Fulham residents, have many happy memories at this cinema over the years. It would be devastating for us to let it go without a fight. Please save the Cineworld Hammersmith