Democracy is of the upmost importance. We trust councillors that we elect to serve our interests. In this instance nearly 4,000 letters of objection to the company’s plans were received at the County Council, set against only 32 letters in favour. Councillors are required to adhere to the standard of good conduct as set out in the Local Government Act 1989 which requires that they effectively represent the interests of their Ward and of individual constituents. In addition councillors must maintain the highest standards of conduct and ethics, serve the public interest and take decisions having regard to the interests of the whole local community. We feel that our interests have been disregarded in favour of fiscal and political reasons.

I learnt yesterday coming from London to Bristol that it is now 'mandatory' to make bike reservations in advance for all travel on GWR trains, a policy I was told (by a guard) came into effect on 16th May, and is largely because of new high speed trains. Are GWR reducing storage on their trains? Probably, and down to 2 or 3 on some 'high speed' trains, instead of increasing to meet demand. This will obviously discourage bike use with great implications, particularly on rural routes, and turning up to catch a train anywhere will be really difficult. What about workers cycling several miles to and from stations to get to work? Isn't it government policy to encourage less car use, supporting more sustainable, less damaging, and healthier modes of transport? Particularly on main routes like Bristol to London, a journey that is already a silly £56 at its cheapest (around 40% more expensive than a similar journey in Europe) for a 'flexible' OFF-PEAK return. Those who need to be flexible will no longer be able to be 'flexible' - and not everyone can afford a Brompton, or the additional charges of London public transport on top. UK rail travel seems to be increasingly inaccessible for most people. I took a trip to Sheffield to cycle in the Peak District recently, and on a Bristol to Sheffield train (£93.80 for an OFF-PEAK advance) there were only 3 bike slots. It cost a friend who was driving £40 in fuel, he carried 3 people, 3 bikes and spent a good amount of time in traffic jams.... https://www.gwr.com/your-journey/journey-information/on-board/cycles https://www.gwr.com/making-a-complaint

West Sussex County Council can help address climate change by divesting £100m of its pension funds out of fossil fuels (1). Fracking, shale gas, arctic sea oil exploration – all of these, plus the systematic drilling for coal, oil and gas on land and in the sea, are financed in part through pension funds. Dangerous climate change is the risk if we don’t all act. Divesting these funds now is morally and ethically correct. What’s more ethical and sustainable investment funds outperformed non-ethical investment funds in 2012/13 (2). Climate change is leading to extremes in our weather. Globally, the State of the Climate report shows a “toppling of several symbolic milestones” in temperature, sea levels and carbon dioxide (3). For Sussex, we are to expect increases in extreme heat – a real danger for young and old members of our community - and flooding. Professor Virginia Murray from Public Health England said, "Data has shown real risk of increased deaths when temperature goes above 26C"(4). Already in our local area, flooding events are increasing and the risk of damage to people and property growing (5). “Divestment represents a tangible action that individuals and organisations can take to combat climate change. I’m scared for my children’s future and take every opportunity I can to pressure action on climate change for them and all of us” - M, Worthing 1 Freedom of Information request dated 02/03/16 2 BlueGreenTomorrow.com: http://blueandgreentomorrow.com/2013/08/15/financial-returns- from-ethical-investment-funds- better-than- mainstream-in- last-12- months/ 3 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/02/environment-climate-change-records-broken-international-report 4 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/weather/10187140/Heatwave-deaths-760-lives-claimed-by-hot-weather-as-high-temperatures-continue.html 5 Climate UK: http://climateuk.net/resource/climate-change- risks-south- east-england

Every aspect of fire prevention is really important, but the fire retardant chemicals used in domestic furniture have become an even greater threat to the public, than the risk of fire. These chemicals have a dual danger, firstly in the everyday home environment, and also as highly toxic emissions when the chemical is burnt, which endangers the public and firemen alike. These chemicals are not measured in parts per thousand – they are measured in kilos in each piece of furniture! To prevent fires spreading there are other highly effective natural alternatives, smoke alarms and other efficient fire prevention methods which do not need any of these chemicals. In America and Europe the public, led by the Fire Brigade, have lobbied hard and have banned the use of fire retardant chemicals in domestic furniture. A huge body of international scientific evidence now links everyday exposure to fire retardant chemicals used in sofas, mattresses and other household items to thyroid problems, lower birth weight, reduced IQ, hyperactivity, poorer coordination, reduced fertility, birth defects, hormonal changes and cancer. Evidence proves the chemicals systematically migrate from furniture into the home environment through household dust. It particularly affects children and research has also shown the harmful impact on animal life and the environment. The UK is one of the few countries still using these chemicals in furniture. When individual fire retardants have been banned in the past, the furniture containing these chemicals has just been left in people's homes and the owners have not been informed. The government is keeping the public in the dark. So, how do we get rid of the furniture in our homes which is full of the chemical fire retardants? Under the Stockholm Agreement, the government plans to burn fire retardant furniture in incinerators which they are building up and down the country. Before this happens we need to be very sure the government is strictly controlling the emissions as the effluent is even more toxic. We have been using these fire retardant chemicals in our furniture for almost 30 years. The UK government needs to act to make legislative changes. Whilst the Department of Business has been working on amendments to the Fire Regulations for many years, nothing has been achieved. They need to talk to manufacturers about natural alternatives, inform the public and take action to protect us now.

Plans have been submitted to Powys County Council for chicken sheds crammed with 26,000 chickens within five minutes of Hay. We don’t want to see this happen. Ammonia from these units threatens to contaminate the River Wye and harm wildlife in our local area. Everyone in Hay wants to support a thriving local farming industry. We will support anyone who wants to diversify their farming mix to ensure a more sustainable future – but not if the price is irreparable damage to our beautiful part of the world. In the past year an exclusion order was put in place after a bout of avian flu at a similar unit in Fife. Think about the impact such an outbreak could have on our economy in Hay – no festivals, no shops, no school, no jobs. Please say NO to factory chicken farms near Hay. #CluckOff! What next? You can print out a poster to show your opposition to the factory farm - download it here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzPR7ceTqhsBRFhwc2taemlpUlU Please also consider sending a formal objection to Powys Council. You can email [email protected] and the full planning details are on the Powys Planning portal (http://www.powys.gov.uk/en/planning-building-control/search-view-and-comment-on-planning-applications/) under P/2016/0397. If you would like to find out more about the plans, and other ways you can help, take a look at this document: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4KIQKAg71wZTnZyZmlObTRXZ3c/view?usp=sharing

When Cheap Costs Too Much Palm Oil has become a too commonly used ingredient in our lives. Used to large brands using this cheap fat in everything from soaps to bread, I've become used to my shopping basket getting increasingly limited. I actually don't mind that aspect but what I do mind the horrific damage done by the growth of this market. What has become particularly insidious is the label of Sustainable Palm Oil, I actually don't believe such a thing can exist. For a start the chances are that the land that any Palm Oil plantations are grown on were once rainforest, with people, orangutans and a whole world of invertebrates and plants that we don't even know about. That also means that it's contributing to increasing C02 levels and, as the peat bogs of South East Asia burn, methane. I see nothing sustainable there. How can such vast plantations ever be called sustainable? Especially as to maintain that plantation for a few years large amounts of chemicals must be employed to keep it going, and then when it runs out of nutrients the plan is to cut down more rainforest and plant that up with Palm Oil? How can this be sustainable? Palm Oil is a cheap and nasty fat, it's bad for health, it's bad for our planet, it's bad for the animals and plants on this planet. I can only see that a ban on Palm Oil in all products is the way forward for a more sustainable future. I call on the Co-operative to ban Palm Oil in all of its products and to actively seek brands that are also proudly Palm Oil free. If you have sustainability as a policy and you use Palm Oil then you fail at the first hurdle. When shops like Lush and brands like Pattersons can declare themselves Palm Oil free I don't see there is any excuse.

The Goodwin Sands are a string of sandbanks some 25 square nautical miles in size lying 3 miles off the Kent coast in the English Channel. They are a unique marine environment with an underwater cultural heritage to match. But this precious habitat is under threat and time is not on our side! Dover Harbour Board want to extract 2.75 million cubic meters of marine aggregate from the Goodwins (as they are known locally) because it is their cheapest option. The purchase price from the Crown Estate who own the seabed is less than from commercial sites, but they are further away. DHB cite the carbon footprint as a reason to take the aggregate from the Goodwins but in reality this is a smoke screen which can be mitigated in other ways. DHB applied for their licence from the Marine Management Organisation in 2016. However, concerns about their proposal have been so great that we are now preparing for an unprecedented third six-week public consultation period, which will start sometime in late summer. A decision whether or not to grant the licence will be made any time after this, depending on the reactions received. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4GrG3IdBU4 Save our Military Remains and Shipwrecks According to the Kent Battle of Britain Museum, there are at least 60 military air crash sites and the final resting places of 80 aircrew from 1940 alone lying buried in the Goodwin Sands area. There are 11 more Dornier 17 German bombers also lying buried somewhere on the Goodwins, identical to the one which was found by a local diver in 2008 and recovered with international press coverage in 2013. The Goodwin Sands are known hold about 2,000 shipwrecks, many which were lost with all hands. These wrecks have the reputation for being extremely well preserved. The wreck of the Admiral Gardner lies close to the proposed dredging zone. She was an East Indiaman, built in 1797, which was stranded on the sands during a gale in 1809. Although there is a 300m exclusion zone around her, the impact and vibration caused by nearby dredging could still disturb or damage her. Four other ships - also Protected Wrecks Sites - Northumberland, Restoration, Mary and Stirling Castle were all wrecked on the night of the Great Storm, 19th November 1703, with the loss of 1201 lives. They lie on the seabed adjacent to the proposed dredging zone. The history of Deal boatmen and the Sands are inexorably linked, giving rise to multiple tales of tragedy, lost lives and heroism. These stories of bravery are reflected in legendary characters such as Will Adams of the North Deal lifeboat, the sea going Chaplain Reverend Stanley Treanor and the sea surgeon James Hall. A German submarine which sank off Dover after being mined in 1939 has still not been discovered. It is protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 and may well lie in or near the proposed dredging zone. Save our Sealife The Goodwins are home to a colony of 500 grey and harbour seals. They are also the spawning and nursery grounds of a variety of local fish and shellfish, with many shipwrecks providing a semi natural habitat. The Thornback Ray which is listed as 'near threatened' under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 has frequently been sighted there. The colony of seals use areas adjacent to the proposed dredging zone as their 'haul out' sites i.e. where they rest on land at low tide. The noise and vibration from the huge dredgers will disturb them in their natural habitat; there is also the possibility of them being injured by collision with the dredgers and propellors as they are naturally inquisitive creatures. The sands provide shelter to ships in bad weather (in an anchorage known as The Downs) and to the Kent coastline by absorbing the waves' energy as they pound in from the North Sea. At low tide a large proportion of the sands are exposed and waves can be seen crashing onto them from the shore. Save our Shore The coastline between Dover and Deal is susceptible to erosion and beach recharging works are a semi permanent feature of life there. Coastal flooding along the East Kent coast is a continual problem and one which would be exacerbated by dredging the Goodwin Sands due to lowering the level and changing the topography (shape) of the sea bed. The sandbanks absorb the energy from the huge rolling waves coming in from the North Sea which would otherwise be crashing straight onto the Kent coast with destructive results. Please help save the Goodwin Sands and their neighbouring environment from the destruction of dredging by signing and sharing this petition today. Thank you!

The world is going to s*** and we're destroying it at an alarming rate what I'm proposing wont stop it but its a very small step in the right direction and in the mean time it might help slow things down while someone smarter than me comes up with a real solution and if we go fume free on a Sunday it'll make the least upheaval to things like buses, postal service and the like

The use of glyphosates has already been banned or restricted in 8 countries. It is not acceptable that ourselves, our children and the animals we share our community with are being routinely exposed to these chemicals whether we like it or not. This is a matter of great importance for those of us who care about each other's health and the health of our children, our cats, our dogs and all the flora and fauna of this city, of course including our beloved bees. If you don't live in this area, click here to start a campaign for your city: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/start-a-pesticide-campaign

The use of glyphosates has already been banned or restricted in 8 countries. It is not acceptable that ourselves, our children and the animals we share our community with are being routinely exposed to these chemicals whether we like it or not. This is a matter of great importance for those of us who care about each other's health and the health of our children, our cats, our dogs and all the flora and fauna of this city, of course including our beloved bees. If you don't live in this area, click here to start a campaign for your city: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/start-a-pesticide-campaign

The use of glyphosates has already been banned or restricted in 8 countries. It is not acceptable that ourselves, our children and the animals we share our community with are being routinely exposed to these chemicals whether we like it or not. This is a matter of great importance for those of us who care about each other's health and the health of our children, our cats, our dogs and all the flora and fauna of this city, of course including our beloved bees. If you don't live in this area, click here to start a campaign for your city: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/start-a-pesticide-campaign

The use of glyphosates has already been banned or restricted in 8 countries. It is not acceptable that ourselves, our children and the animals we share our community with are being routinely exposed to these chemicals whether we like it or not. Often being sprayed in day time hours in windy conditions around the general public, or children and pets are left to play in sprayed areas with no warning. Many other effective alternatives exist, as PAN-UK point out, and are already in use in other European and UK cities. Indeed there are many hundreds of examples from around the world of towns and cities, both larger and smaller than Cardiff, which have effective, sustainable, economic, non-chemical weed and pest control regimes in place. Pesticide-free is possible! The Cardiff Council is currently using Darka pro to spay verges, parks and alleyways which contains the controversial glyphosate. This is a matter of great importance for those of us who care about each other's health and the health of our children, our cats, our dogs and all the flora and fauna of this city, of course including our beloved bees. If you don't live in this area, click here to start a campaign for your city: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/start-a-pesticide-campaign