• Abandon the Library Consultation
    Libraries matter to communities. To make informed decisons about libraries the Council needs to know what people think. But this consultation will not do that. The consultation is stuff full of jargon. The language is confusing. It should be in plain English. Readability of text can be measured using a SMOG test. That's "Simple Measure of Gobbledygook". The Sun newspaper has a SMOG value of less than 14. The Express is less than 16. The Guardian and Telegraph is around 17. The SMOG value of Worcestershire County Council's consulation is an amazing 44! Ordinary people have little chance of understanding it. But a good consultation should be about getting ordinary people's views. The Council should therefore abandon it and do it properly!
    16 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Robert Barlow
  • Say 'Yes' to a new Street Traders Market space just off the Royal Mile!
    After the loss of the lease for Edinburgh's only 7 day retail market in the Tron Kirk in April 2018, an application was submitted for a new space at the Courtyard inside Old Stamp Office Close, just off the Royal Mile. The plan is to erect 13 smaller, wooden stalls for retail use (so no cooking/ smells), around the perimeter of the Courtyard and operate during business hours only. The market will likely offer jewellery, fashions, Scottish arts and crafts, memorabilia and heritage products, bath and beauty products and much more. The Planning Committee are due to decide on the application on 5th December 2018, and we want them to say "YES" to the return of jobs, more trader pitches (which are being cut elsewhere), more opportunities to promote Scottish arts and craft products and offer a sustainable income for local micro business owners and their families. With this, it will provide a much called for alternative shopping experience for visitors to the Royal Mile whilst reducing the volume of traffic in the area by not forcing traders to erect metal framed stalls and carry stock to and from the High Street each day, under the current, unfair "ballot for pitches" system. Furthermore, an onsite cafe and office will be established to support the market by giving access to bathroom facilities, first aid/ health and safety resources, market management and a meeting place. This planning application is a "one of a kind" opportunity to deliver a number of benefits to the street trader and craft community of Edinburgh and the Lothians, which has recently seen Council votes go against them with the loss of the lease and closure of the Tron Kirk Market and the impending closure of Edinburgh Palette craft studios in Meadowbank. The city council will also receive a significant rent for the property and regular fees from annual Market Operator and Trader licences. With Edinburgh's High Street and North and South Bridge becoming ever more filled with souvenir shops, this will also bring a fresh alternative shopping experience for the many visitors to the Royal Mile. The location is also notable historically for being a house to Lady Eglinton and her daughters, a boarding school to Flora MacDonald and the founding location of RBS and will become more accessible to historians and walking tours if approved.
    10 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Stuart Ramsay
  • Stop the Closure of the New School Butterstone
    The New School Butterstone was originally founded in rural Perthshire, as a safehaven for education for young people with complex needs such as asperges and autism. These students come to Butterstone having found mainstream education challenging, and find that they are able to get on and thrive in an environment tailored to their needs. Smaller classes, individualized lessons and like minded students. WHAT will happen to these young people now? Will they simply be segwayed back into mainstream education in large classes, where they will be misunderstood, ignored and left at a disadvantage. We shouldn't be loosing places like 'The New School...' we should be gaining them, and learning from them. Please sign and help!
    57 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Jeni Deards
  • Fairer PAY for value of work.
    For far too long the non-operational side has been outcast and a forgotten part of the prison service, whether it be admin, parole, canteen services or estates maintenance The Scottish Prison Service seem to think it’s acceptable to place families in what is essentially poverty by not fairly rewarding the work that they do the level of qualifications that are expected of them and the above and beyond attitude that is taken for granted. They bang on about the other benefits that there are for working for the prison service but in all honesty there are pretty much none, they bang on about the pension(the ones that have been Cut so much they’re effectively worthless) the staff discounts (available from a big company where you have to buy gift cards and often find the price cheaper elsewhere anyway) the sick pay and sick entitlement (which is greatly received but also needed due to the stressful nature of the job remembering that the staff including the non-operational are in contact with the most dangerous members of the public on a daily basis, the constant barrage of extra work and extra tasks with no extra reward they are grinding down their staff and sending them dangerously close to a burnout) There is a clear divide throughout the SPS where it seems that the non-operational staff are degraded and forgotten about. The Scottish prison service do not pay appropriately for these posts. For example a member of admin staff at one of the prisons effectively has 3 roles to do after 2 colleagues got fed up and left. Here’s the big surprise they can’t fill the post because the wages are so poor. Another member of non-operational staff at another prison keeps getting tasks added to their job role with no extra reward and then subsequently is rebuked when they cannot deliver on their original role. Yet another member of staff is effectively doing the job of two people because the post for the other person has lay vacant for months. They are afraid to fill the post with agency workers as then they may well be subject to an equal pay claim is it right that even temporary workers are better paid and have better working conditions than those employed by the prison service. Another prison is so short on staff they have had to beg, borrow and steal staff from across the country to deliver on a project. Yet another has had vacant posts for months upon months and has had to borrow staff from elsewhere effectively leaving them short and yet another prison has a vacant post and is sending labour to a different prison leaving one staff member to cover 3 roles and still no one is taking notice. Then there are the “B” bands the lowest paid workers in the prison service. Many have to travel considerable distances to get to work and are constantly belittled and passed over for other colleagues rewards before themselves. Such as recently an equal pay claim which was settled out of court and the prison service paid out£4000 to each of the the C, D and E bands but they didn’t even consider the B bands even with this 4000 the wages of the C, D and E bands are not proportional to the jobs that they do and nowhere near in line with what other similar roles are paid. But what about the B bands who just keep getting more and more tasks added to their job description without any extra reward. As it was said by the upper eschelons if the prison service someone has to loose out to give someone else something and yet they can hand back millions of pounds each year to the government. It is time that the Scottish Prison Service and the Scottish Government sit up and take notice of the utter state of despair that the prison service is in. Time that they take a serious look at themselves and at the crash in morale they have caused and the real life implications of the desicions that they make. Why should anyone ever have to loose out? What about fair reward for the work that they do?
    3 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Anonymous SPSemployee
  • Remove marks awarded for SPAG from English GCSE’s for students with dyslexia
    Students with dyslexia are being unfairly disadvantaged in education and the workplace.
    28 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Paul Penlington
  • Delivery cyclists and lights on bicycles
    They would not allow motorcyclists/ scooter riders to work without obeying traffic laws so why do they allow their cyclists to flaunt the law.
    3 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Bob Jenkins
  • Allow us to serve you Curry
    The 4 billion Curry industry needs government to seriously reconsider the skill migration policy to accommodate the staff shortage Curry Houses are facing . There are lots of Curry house owners selling their business because they can’t deal with this understaff situation. My organisation Bangladesh Caterers Association Kent would like your support to keep its members door open to serve you the British People your Favourite curries. As we know Due to Brexit the Immigration policies will change , we would like the Government to change their view towards the Curry Industry and allow us to bring Chefs from Abroad as they have accommodated Agriculture industry by allowing Fruit Pickers to be employed from Abroad.
    2 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Mustafiz Khandaker
  • Challenging the DBS system
    The DBS system is designed to show if people have convictions. Being homeless is not a crime. Within the care sector we cannot employ people without a DBS. Being homeless prevents people from being able to obtain a police record check which will prove that they are not a criminal. being homeless could happen to ANY if us and is NOT a crime. There is currently around 11,000 care vacancies in this country right now. Legislation needs to be changed to be more inclusive.
    25 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Chrissie Medway Steel
  • Improved I.T. provision
    There will be notable repercussions in the standard of exam results in six different courses in Firrhill High School alone if the I.T. equipment isn't provided at an acceptable standard in schools in Edinburgh. Disadvantaged students are effected the worst as they may be unable to provide a computer at home. Pupils in classes are unable to complete tasks as the computers provided previously do not have the ability to run programs needed in course work.
    1 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Aistair Ritchie
  • Fry's Chocolate Factory Petion
    To remember the first company to create the probable first chocolate bar and a new way of processing chocolate as well as the first chocolate Easter Egg.This was in their former headquarters and factory on the corner of Union Street and Nelson Street.
    4 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Fred Ralston
  • REINSTATE THE GARDEN NURSERY LOCATED ON MARSTON TRADING ESTATE FROME FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
    IF THE GARDEN NURSERY CENTER WAS REINSTATED IT WOULD ENABLE PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES TO EXPAND THEIR HORIZONS, DEVELOP SOCIAL SKILLS, MEET NEW PEOPLE FROM MANY DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS, FEEL MORE INCLUSIVE IN THE BROADER COMMUNITY, BE THE FIRST STEP TO GAINING MEANINGFUL EMPLOYMENT, GAIN A SENSE OF SELF ACHIEVEMENT FOR BOTH THEMSELVES AND THEIR FAMILIES. IT WILL ALSO ACT AS A HUB FOR RETIRED GARDENERS TO PASS ON THEIR EXPERTISE TO A DIFFERENT GENERATION OF PEOPLE WILLING TO LEARN. CREATING A PLACE WITH A STRONG SENSE OF COMMUNITY.
    19 of 100 Signatures
    Created by paul williams
  • Support a Living Wage for Ayrshire School Cleaners!
    As the new school term gets underway, school cleaners and janitors employed across Ayrshire by the local schools contractor, Mitie, are taking to the streets to campaign against their second-class treatment by Mitie and the local council. GMB Scotland, the union for school support staff, is stepping up its campaign for a Living Wage for school cleaners. GMB Scotland is also demanding that janitors working in local schools, which are operated on behalf of North, South and East Ayrshire councils by the contractor, Mitie, are paid at least the same as council employed janitors. Members of the public across Ayrshire will be asked to sign petitions backing the cleaners and janitors at special street stalls organised by the union in Kilmarnock, Ayr and Irvine over the next few weeks. In each of the 13 Mitie managed schools across Ayrshire low paid, predominantly women, workers are being treated as second class citizens with the full knowledge of the political leadership of local councils. School cleaners employed by Mitie are paid nearly £1 below the Scottish Living Wage, currently £8.75 an hour, which is paid as a minimum to every other council worker. Many of these workers transferred to Mitie's employment from the local council but have seen their pay erode year on year compared to their colleagues, doing the same jobs, and still employed by the council. There are even examples of women working in school kitchens and also as school cleaners who see their rate of pay drop when they change a council overall for a Mitie one. Sign below to support GMB Scotland’s campaign for all our school staff to earn at least the Living Wage and for fair pay for all school support staff, no matter what school they work in.
    129 of 200 Signatures
    Created by GMB SCOTLAND Picture