Dear Gareth Johnson MP, As you will be aware, the consultation for a proposal to develop The London Resort on The Swanscombe Peninsula has now closed. Due to the development being declared an NSIP, the decision-making process has been taken entirely out of the hands of the local authority and straight to the Secretary of State to decide its future, with no regard to the country’s extensive planning laws. Unsurprisingly, plans to develop a theme park on this natural oasis have garnered huge opposition, on both a local and national level. The Swanscombe Peninsula is officially described as a brownfield site, but in spite of this, and in large part because of this, it is truly a wildlife gem to be treasured. Unlike some other brownfield sites that have been adversely contaminated, resulting in damage to the surrounding land, it is this unique mixture of wet and dry habitats and the specific industrial use ofthis land that has made this site such a uniquely biodiverse area. Like chalk downland and saltmarsh, the harsher the conditions for life, the greater the diversity of the ecology supported. You cannot recreate this artificially. Some may, at first sight, seek to dismiss this apparently, in parts, scruffy and barren landscape and see the marshes as ripe for development, however it is exactly this open mosaic land which is so rare and so valuable in this part of Kent, and almost unique in the country, supporting populations of rare invertebrates, breeding birds and numerous other creatures. The peninsula is currently home to 1,992 species of invertebrates (250 of which are of conservation concern). This includes the critically endangered Distinguished Jumping Spider, found in only one other site in the whole of the UK. There are endangered water voles and more breeding bird species (82) than at Rainham Marsh RSPB nature reserve, just across this same stretch of river, itself a designated marine conservation area for the species it nurture. The Swanscombe marshes act as a natural flood barrier and with climate change now an accepted reality, the idea of building a theme park on a site that is liable to flooding is questionable to say the least. Marshland is also an especially crucial asset in the absorption of C02. Swanscombe is already adjacent to an official air quality management area and air pollution will further be compounded by an increase in traffic. The local road network is already terminally congested, and coupled with Ebbsfleet car park about to become a lorry customs checkpoint, if this development does go ahead, it may well come to a complete standstill. Local natural spaces have become even more hugely significant during lockdown. Residents havelong sought sanctuary in the marshes and being able to escape to this nature-rich beauty spot has undoubtedly benefitted the physical and mental health of many over the past decades and especially during this challenging time. For the reasons stated above, and whatever the outcome of imminent change on national policy on infrastructure projects, we implore you to support us in stopping the wanton destruction of this wildlife haven. Not only will it be an act of vandalism against the environment, this area is simply not an appropriate site for a gigantic theme park & the local infrastructure could not accommodate it. As our local MP we hope that you back us in protecting the marshes before they are lost forever in a concrete tomb. Many Thanks, The Swanscombe Peninsula Campaign Group.

For a brief period in November 2020 we were given a glance of what Salisbury city could be like without constant traffic steaming through it. A visionary and forward looking plan by Wiltshire Council set out brave steps to both improve the city and encourage walking and cycling, while going some of the way to achieving climate change goals. Sadly, this coincided with the second UK lockdown and a time where most shops were forced to close, and therefore the experiment ran into huge difficulties from the outset. Despite this, Salisbury City Council opposed the scheme, seemingly forgetting their own aspirations to take climate change seriously. By preventing the experiment from running we will never get to see the huge benefits such a scheme could deliver. The People Friendly Streets scheme offers a real chance to improve the city centre by tackling congestion and pollution, gradually moving the population away from reliance on cars and towards a more sustainable and brighter future. By shutting down this experiment we are denying future generations the chance to live in a clean safe city designed for people and not just cars. We are also failing the planet by losing the chance to take a small but importance step to reduce our carbon emissions.

In 2017, a report by the Local Government Ombudsman called "Lifting the lid on bin complaints" revealed that 81% of complaints about council waste and recycling were upheld. Many complaints concerned issues linked to outsourcing of council waste collection to private companies. Complaints to the Local Government Ombudsman represent a small fragment of all disputes between service users and waste collection service-providers around the UK. However, it does have an important role in ensuring standards are met within waste collection, protecting service-user rights and reporting back to Local Authorities on best practice. At present, individuals and business operators who use private waste collection companies, or brokers, for their waste removal or recycling have no opportunity to complain to an independent ombudsman who could adjudicate in disputes without the need for court action. This is unfair, and a missed opportunity to learn from mistakes in the industry. An Ombudsman can collect evidence-based data, and give guidance on best practice for the benefit of customers, public health and the environment.

Peatlands are the superheros of the ecosystem: they purify water, reduce flooding and are a home for rare species. But the key fact is their ability to store carbon and help climate change. Peatland covers 3% of the world's land yet holds 33% of all of the total soil carbon on Earth. This is more than twice the amount of carbon stored in the world's forests. In the UK, peat covers 10% of land, yet stores more carbon than all the UK soils and forests combined (3bn tonnes). Peat burning occurs in the UK for grouse shooting and an estimated 350,000 tons of CO2 is released each year as a direct result of burning. When peat is degraded and damaged it pours out carbon and is a huge source of carbon in the atmosphere, it is vital to help preserve and restore all our peatlands to aid in climate change. We can all do our bit by checking what we buy at the garden centre, and make people and governments aware of this issue and the importance preserving and restoring our peatlands.

Uffculme needs trees. The world environment needs trees. The village square will be barren without this mature tree that has stood there for many years. A local tree surgeon and health and safety consultant has pronounced this tree to have 'fine form and good outline' He also says that small birch leaves do not cause slippage or any other problems. Please sign this petition if you support Uffculme retaining this lovely and historic tree.

- Communities should have a REAL say in the places they live - save our land! - Our wildlife is in decline, we need to do everything we can to protect it. - Nature is vital for healthy ecosystems, food production and human wellbeing. - Harrogate District has 8% woodland cover compared to a national average of 12% and a European average of 36%. - Woodland planted by the community and destroyed by our own council and business gives the wrong message to children. - The Climate crisis is urgent and we need to reduce carbon emissions. Woodlands absorb carbon and destroying them goes against the Council's own carbon reduction plans. - People and planet over profit.

The routine and regular use of herbicides, especially ones containing glyphosate are not compatible with the need to safeguard and encourage flora and fauna and is an outdated and costly method that has hazardous implications for humans, domestic and wild creatures . Alternatives are possible and Plantlife Cymru can help and advise with the “Road verge Campaign”.

"We are at a unique stage in our history. The future of humanity and indeed, all life on earth, now depends on us" David Attenborough We are facing an unprecedented climate crisis and the UK government simply isn’t doing enough. We know that we are in an emergency, the next 10 years are critical to keeping global temperatures at a safe level, and we want the government to take immediate and urgent action. The CEE Bill has started on its path through parliament and was due to return for its second reading in March this year. It can help us change our course—making the government act with the urgency we need and involving everyday people in a Citizens’ Assembly that has real bite. If the CEE Bill is made law, the government would have to act fast, accounting for our entire carbon footprint while actively conserving nature here and overseas. The bill could set a precedent that can be replicated across the world. According to They Work for You, a website that documents MP voting records, our late local MP Cheryl Gillan “generally voted against measures to prevent climate change”. Please help to ensure that are new MP supports the CEE Bill. It is vital that local environmental groups and concerned citizens have the opportunity to convey to them the severity of the crisis we are facing so they can represent us in parliament. Encouraging them to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill would be a great start! Signing this petition will let our new MP know how concerned you, their constituents, are. We need the support of as many MPs as possible so that this bill can move forward - politicians need to step up. Sign this petition to call on our MP to back the CEE Bill! If you are not in Chesham & Amersham constituency, why not set up your own petition. For more information regarding the CEE bill, including the full wording of the bill, head over to https://www.ceebill.uk/ JOIN THE CEE BILL CAMPAIGN To join the campaign, go to the CEE Bill Alliance website for the sign up form and to find out more: https://www.ceebill.uk/campaign Sign this petition to ask the future MP for Chesham & Amersham constituency to support the CEE Bill

Thousands of people watched the BBC1 Countryfile programme on Sunday 25th October when it gave this information: Over 3,000 of our 7000 'Sites of Special Scientific Interest' across the UK, some 40% are in poor condition. In England over 70% of these sites have not been checked in the last 6 years, it is 30% in Scotland, Wales have 'no comprehensive monitoring', and the Northern Ireland authority didn't respond to the request for information. The budget of Natural England was £240M in 2010, but £100M in 2018 a dramatic fall necessitating a loss of a third of its staff. The Environment Agency (also responsible for flood protection), has lost two thirds of its staff since 2010, and last year only 4% of reported pollution incidents and other potential breaches of regulations were even investigated. We ask the Prime Minister to honour his pledge to tackle biodiversity loss and return the budgets of Natural England and the Environmental Agency to 2010 levels at the next budget, if not in his own words “now, right now!”, and to continue to fund Environmental Protection with increased and realistic budgets in the future, which meet the increasing environmental crisis.

Local campaigners have been opposing this plan on the grounds of intolerable climate and radiological damage since 2017. Her Majesty now has a direct role to play in either facilitating or stopping this plan in its tracks.  Her Majesty’s Crown Estate signed an Exploration Agreement with West Cumbria Mining on 21st July 2017.  This agreement ran out on 2nd October 2020.
 
 Also on 2nd October 2020 Cumbria County Council were minded to approve West Cumbria Mining’s plan.  (The Secretary of State told the council they could refuse but not offer final approval for the plan, pending his decision) 
 Developers, West Cumbria Mining require Her Majesty to agree to an Exploitation agreement in order to extract the coal.
 
 Her Majesty has visited Sellafield, the world’s known riskiest nuclear waste site.  Sellafield would be just five miles from the deep undersea coal mine.  Mass void removal is known to induce seismicity.  As well as this certain seismic risk the mine would be directly below the radioactive sediments which have settled on the Irish Sea bed from decades of Sellafield discharges.  The radioactive sediment which includes plutonium is named as the Cumbrian Mud Patch. 
 There have been many peer reviewed and independent reports indicating that subsidence/disturbance of the Irish Sea bed will resuspend these decades of radioactive wastes into the sea.  It takes just 4 years for radioactive wastes from Sellafield’s discharge pipeline to reach the Arctic. Far less time to reach our own coasts. The New Scientist has reported that Sellafield "reprocessing plant has released 40 000 billion becquerels of caesium-137. “So far, about 15 000 billion becquerels have reached the Arctic. This is between two and three times more than the contamination from Chernobyl, which is reaching the Arctic via the Baltic and North Seas.”  https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15420811-400-sellafield-leaves-its-mark-on-the-frozen-north/
 
 
 Mike Berners-Lee the climate expert has said of the Council approval of the coal mine that "12 Cumbria County Councillors have serious climate blood on their hands after approving the coal mine yet again - even though the case for has been shown to be 100% bogus. Unlikely there is anything any of them can do in their lives to undo this much damage.”   
 
 For myself as a long time nuclear safety campaigner and the person who took on the legal challenge against the coal mine with the help of top lawyers Leigh Day,  I know that the climate impacts although massive, are the tip of the iceberg. The nuclear impacts are of a magnitude literally out of this world as it is well known that the high level radioactive wastes sitting at Sellafield could annihilate the planet many times over.  This and the certain risk of resuspension of the Cumbrian Mud Patch wastes means that this coal mine puts the whole planet at direct risk of a nuclear fall out there would be no coming back from. 
 
 
 Please be on the right side of history and refuse to sign the Crown Estate agreement with West Cumbria Mining for further Exploration and Exploitation of coal reserves under the Irish Sea 5 miles from Sellafield and directly beneath the Cumbrian Mud Patch.
 Exploration Agreement with West Cumbria Mining https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07143398/charges/lXWNTRigei_OaJQXhs2MwyKZ7ms Report into Radiological Impacts of the Coal Mine by Tim Deere Jones https://issuu.com/wildart/docs/west_cumbria_mining_-_radiological_implications_of

We are concerned that for Sheffield City Centre, this Development Framework in its current form would increase air pollution and carbon emissions and would diminish a vital city centre green space. Sheaf Valley Park has been widely commended as an innovative and essential part of our city centre infrastructure. The Development Framework’s proposal to drive a dual carriageway through this park is deeply damaging, retrogressive and contradictory to the Council’s own transport, carbon and air quality targets. How can building a new dual carriageway ( swapping the existing dual carriageway with the existing tram line ) in the centre of the city reduce carbon and improve air quality when most independent research clearly states that new roads increase traffic and carbon emissions? It will not contribute to improving air quality and in fact will make air quality worse for Sheffield City as well as residents of Park Hill and the wider neighbourhood. New roads increase carbon emissions: It will not contribute to lowering carbon emissions and will have a substantially negative impact on total net carbon emissions for the project. Of equal concern is the apparent lack of strategic linkage to a clear vision for Sheffield City Region and Sheffield City Centre. The Development Framework is predicated on a series of engineering and land-based asset assumptions. It does not respond to a long-term net carbon zero future for Sheffield nor does it comply with or respond to the City Council’s own multiple strategic and policy commitments. There is so much more which requires an approach that goes beyond specific sites, traffic circulation and engineering design. The whole document appears to be lodged in a 20th century car dominated policy framework, driven by trying to address historic road-based development objectives, without any balanced evaluation of the viability, practicality or value of these assumptions. It is a deeply retrogressive and old-fashioned perspective on city development. The regeneration of the Midland Station ought to be a beacon and demonstrator for Sheffield City Region, pioneering less car traffic on roads; more active transport infrastructure; more greening and a brave and ambitious commitment to integrated, zero carbon transport systems. Instead it feels like a throwback to the 1960s where ring-roads of polluting traffic encircled our cities and personal mobility trumped mass transit systems and where there was scant regard for the impact of fossil fuels and their impact on our natural environment. We welcome the principle of the grey to green conversion of multiple roads as part of the wider strategy. This should be the opportunity for our city of Sheffield to grasp taking a new direction rather than a process of retrogressive transport planning.

Parliament declared a Climate Emergency over a year ago - and still not enough is being done to stop the worst effects of the climate crisis - in the UK and across the world. The Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill, which already has the support of 70+ MPs, calls for the UK to make and enact a serious plan to cut our emissions, protect our nature, and give ordinary people a real say on the way forward, through a citizens’ assembly. The climate and ecological crisis is the biggest threat to all life on Earth we have ever faced, it is vital we act now and this bill would be a very encouraging step. But for this Bill to stand a chance of becoming law, a majority of MPs need to support it. That’s why I am calling on our MP Rushanara Ali to please support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill. Please join me! You can find out more about the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill here: https://www.ceebill.uk/