Reducing the speed limit will make the Village a safer place for all users Increasingly it is accepted that 20mph speed limits save lives, and they are being implemented on roads across many London boroughs. Where cyclists and horse riders must share space with motor traffic, reducing the speed differential is important: both for reducing the risk of death and injury, and for creating more pleasant cycling, horse riding and walking environments.

In the village of Cornforth is a deserted public house in an extremely unsafe condition and is also being used as a point for fly tipping. Concern for the health of our children and the environment of our village has led us to forming this petition. Will Cornforth residents please sign and share this link.

At almost two hundred years old, Northfields Allotments is London's oldest allotment site. It dates back to 1832, when the Bishop of London enclosed the site for use as allotments by the local community. The original allotments were more than twice their current size, however over half of the site was compulsorily purchased and built on several decades ago. We now fear that we could be facing the loss of the remainder of the site. Northfields Allotments is an important heritage site and we believe it should be given the same protection as Ealing’s many parks and public open spaces. The importance of allotments in London is recognised at the highest levels. The Mayor of London’s London Plan clearly states that “Boroughs should protect existing allotments” (section 7.22). The benefits provided by allotments are widely acknowledged. A large and growing body of academic research makes clear the social, mental and physical well-being benefits provided by community green spaces. What’s more, the Public Health Agency has identified numerous benefits of allotments to the community, including the promotion of good mental health, physical activity and nutrition, as well as the encouragement of social interaction. At Northfields Allotments, we have 141 plots with 72 people on the waiting list so demand is high. 29 plotholders live in flats meaning their allotment is their only garden. We have many families on site, with the result that the allotments provide approximately 50 children with a safe place to play and learn about nature. We have more than 25 retired plotholders who love the exercise, fresh air, and social aspect of being part of an allotment community. The allotments are an important habitat for a wide variety of wildlife, including hedgehogs, nesting birds and insects – and in particular stag beetles, which are endangered and protected. Bats are regularly sighted, not only feeding over the allotments, but also using the ancient hedgerows for navigation. These hedgerows are recognised by Ealing Council as a Site of Interest for Nature Conservation (SINC), which is supposed to provide protected under planning legislation. We recognise that housing is important, but so are green open spaces. It shouldn’t need to be a choice and there are alternative options that would allow Pathways to house its residents while leaving this historic site untouched by development. Ealing is already extremely built up. Once green space has been built on, it is lost to the community forever. This is why we implore Ealing Council’s planning department and planning committee to protect the allotments from development, whether that be now or at any point in the future.

After signing this petition please formally object via http://didcot.space (will redirect you to the Garden Town plan page) or send an email to [email protected] Comments can be as short or long as you like - just make it clear you object to building on Ladygrove Park. Consultation on these proposals has been extended to 28th February, so please do it now. Thank you! There are plans for 15,000 new houses to be built in Didcot as part of the "Didcot Garden Town" project. This is more than those planned for Bicester Garden Town, recently described as a "dog's breakfast" with ecologically important flower rich meadows being lost to housing. Proposals for Didcot have been announced that are WORSE than first feared. They include building technical office space and accommodation over roughly half of the Ladygrove recreation ground and play park. The remnants would be developed such that there would be no substantial level open green space for casual sports or recreation. A new road cutting across the play park and flats on the play park, opposite the Willowbrook and behind the football club with no additional parking serve to top of this awful proposal. The current morning congestion around the primary school would be intolerable. Our facilities, green spaces and paths integral to our local parkrun are threatened. You can see the briefings here : https://didcotgardentown.commonplace.is/news/2017/01/20/stakeholder-representative-group-presentation-19-january-2017 Campaigners in Bicester have been to court twice to try to protect their environment. If we are to protect our green spaces and amenities the time to act is now, by obtaining a simple undertaking from the project team before their plans are fully formed. If you want to save them please sign this petition and share it with your friends. Thank you! (You can see the Ladygrove areas initially marked out for development on the final pages of these two official downloads published by the Didcot Garden Town planners http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/node/18434 and this http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/node/18447 )

The simple crisp needs a better home to help keep our home, Earth, clean. By using a material that cannot at least be recycled for items such as crisps increases the global pollution crisis. Around 6 billion bags of crisps are eaten across the UK alone in one year which means 6 billion crisp bags are not recycled. If a sneaky crisp packet gets into the rest of your recycling the whole of the recycling can be rejected meaning less in the end is actually recycled. Packaging that can be recycled reduces the need for new material to be manufactured and actually helps us save energy! For example by recycling an aluminum can, we save 95% of the energy that it would take to create a new can! But for plastic - One ton of recycled plastic saves 5,774 Kwh of energy, 16.3 barrels of oil, 98 million Btu's of energy, and 30 cubic yards of landfill space.(Sandford University) Crisp packaging needs to be updated for the 21st century and needs to be part of the solution in the ongoing pollution problem and not part of the problem.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority is planning for an extra 227,200 homes over the next 25 years. This is based on an unrealistic economic growth of 2.5% year on year and a flawed population growth forecast. If this plan is approved, Bury will bear the brunt of these proposals with 12,500 new dwellings on Green Belt land and a new industrial and warehousing site larger than Trafford Park at the M66 and M60/ M62 motorways junction. More homes are needed and new jobs are welcome, but we can work out ways to meet our housing needs and facilitate the creation of decent, well paid jobs in Bury without encroaching on the existing Green Belt land.

We love the Lower Lea Valley marshes (Leyton marshes, Walthamstow marshes and Hackney marshes). We love having such an amazing, unique, open green space on our doorstep, a place to reconnect with nature and let our imaginations run wild right in the heart of one of the most densely populated cities in the world. And we want to make sure the marshes are there for future generations to enjoy. This is why we are devastated to learn that the London Borough of Waltham Forest has launched a consultation on their vision for the Lea Valley Eastside (http://walthamforest-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal/leabridge/leyton), which involves rezoning the large swathe of green open space around The WaterWorks Centre - part of Leyton marshes - for housing. This land is Metropolitan Open Land, which means it should be protected from all inappropriate development, just like Green Belt land. If these plans are approved, then the spectre of our marshes disappearing under high-rise tower blocks comes one step closer. We have until the end of January to tell the Council - loud and clear - that we will not tolerate building on our marshes. If we can stop these plans in their tracks, then we have a chance to save our marshes for the future.

We are calling on the Mayor of London to tackle air pollution and save lives by creating an Ultra Low Emission Zone (‘ULEZ’) to cover the whole of Greater London. An ULEZ is an area in which vehicles must meet exhaust emission standards or pay a daily travel charge. The highest charges will be paid by the most polluting vehicles. The Mayor is proposing to create an ULEZ for all vehicles in central London in 2019. He is consulting on whether to extend it to cover the area inside the North and Circular Road and also to create an ULEZ for the whole of London but only for heavy vehicles. We are asking him to go further. Air pollution is now a major health risk. We need powerful measures to tackle it. An ULEZ which applies only to heavy vehicles will not be enough to protect people from pollution in outer London, especially where people live and work next to the North or South Circular. Creating an ULEZ for all vehicles to cover the whole of London would significantly reduce pollution in outer London and would better improve the air quality in central London than an ULEZ that covers central London alone. For these reasons we ask you to add your name to this petition:

Q: Why is the building important? A: Dunelm House was completed in 1966 by the Architects' Co-Partnership and engineered by Ove Arup. Ove Arup was born in Heaton, Newcastle Upon-Tyne and was one of the greatest engineers of the 20th Century. Arup played a crucial role in pioneering engineering works worldwide, serving most notably as the designer and supervisor for Durham’s own Kingsgate Bridge (Grade I listed), and as design engineer for the Sydney Opera House. Arup, an honorary Geordie, considered Kingsgate Bridge one of the most important projects of his career, requesting that his ashes be scattered from the bridge following his death in 1988. Kingsgate and Dunelm House are physically connected, as a marriage of structures that depend upon each other. This makes Dunelm House and Kingsgate Bridge two of the most significant structures in the UK, if not Europe, if not the World! And they are on our doorstep in Durham. Why would you want to lose or damage either? Q: It’s a load of ugly dirty grey concrete - knock it down. A: Yes, it is dirty. It is white concrete. And it needs a clean. If you had not cleaned your house for 51 years, it would look grim too. The building needs major work, which Durham University calculate would cost £14.7m. It might seem like a lot of money, but this is a fraction of what recent building projects have required, and is comparable to renovations and extensions to other university buildings. And just think what it could cost to demolish it, bury it in a landfill (how unsustainable!) and rebuild on the same site. Q: The building 'is not able to accommodate new uses, so we should demolish it. A: This statement has been reached as part of the University’s ‘strategic masterplan’, which wants to put another building use on the site of Dunelm House. Of course, this doesn't work without significant investment. So perhaps the masterplan has not been adequately evidenced or justified in trying to impose a new function on an existing building - it’s like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Why not simply adjust the masterplan? Demolition is highly unsustainable, wasteful and very costly financially and environmentally. It should always be the last move when all else fails, and your building is literally falling down. Dunelm House is not falling down - it was designed by one of the greatest engineers of the 20th Century. Q: But the building has a leaky roof! A: Yes it does. All roofs leak at some point (even Durham Cathedral’s roof leaks - it doesn't mean we should knock it down). Most new roofs are only guaranteed for 20 years. Dunelm House's roof is 51 years old, and so like any other building it needs a new roof! Durham University has been aware of the leaky roof for over 10 years. Now is the time to fix it. Q: It will cost too much to repair it. Isn’t it cheaper to just build new? A: Durham University have carried out detailed estimations on the redesign and repair estimated at £14.7m. Dunelm House has a gross internal area of 3980sqm, making the refurbishment cost an estimated £3600 per sqm. That seems like a lot of money, but it is cheaper than the cost of Durham Universities new Ogden Center for Fundamental Physics (the new abstract timber building) which is costing £11.5m for 2,478 sq. m – that’s a whopping £4640 per sqm! Refurbishing the building could be cheaper than building new. A completely new building on Dunelm House’s site could cost millions more due to the cost of demolition and disposal to put Dunelm House into a landfill, not to forget the complexities of the site due to the topography, retaining walls, structures required and access issues that make this project site very complex – and as a consequence very costly! Q: We want a shiny new building by some famous international starchitect. That will put Durham on the map and make it a world class city! A: Durham is already a world class city, with a world class University. It has a diverse architectural grain from across the past millennium, and this includes the twentieth century. Durham University has been an amazing patron of modern architecture, particularly during the 1960s. So why undo that good work and lose it all now? Yes, hire great architects with lots of imagination and creativity. BUT, please look at what other highly successful refurbishment projects of Modernist buildings there have been. Look at Park Hill refurbishment in Sheffield (Hawkins Brown) or the Barbican refurbishment in London (AHMM) completed in past 10 years. Both hugely successful developments, prestigious, award winning, high profile, world class buildings that simply recognise and celebrate the value of Twentieth Century Architecture. Go on Durham, you can do that too!

There is currently a proposal to make 20 million pounds worth of cuts to the Birmingham Parks Budget . This means reducing staffing in the 6 major parks down to only 2 hubs with these expected to manage every other country park and park space run by BCC in the whole of Birmingham. This will mean no more supported schools groups, a huge reduction and diminishment to our green spaces, no more eco action and nature events ... or secret santa, or nursery for plants to make our city beautiful, no more community action liaison work, no more drug and alcohol support group work, no more keeping an eye on our country parks to keep them safe places for us to visit, reduced visitor centres and significantly less maintenance of these precious spaces across our city. Without regular care will fall into dereliction and disrepair. We need these major parks for our kids to play in, for us to walk in and keep fit, and we want to know they are staffed and safe! Birmingham is the UK's second city with the most green space of any uk city these spaces don't just look after themselves. They need dedicated care to remain the nurturing places we all know and love. Unfortunately central conservative government has slashed the council budget for Birmingham (a labour council) disproportionately compared to say that of conservative Oxford. It's not right!!! The consultation document is worded to try and get those who do respond to agree to these draconian cuts as a good idea...we need to stop them and the consultation is only open to respond to until the first week in January 2017.

As a parent whose child attends West Acton Primary, I have a concern for the effects it will have on our children and for the local residents living in the area. Some waste will eventually rot, but not all, and in the process it may smell. The noise, dirt and increased traffic in a already congested area and other polluting effects. We urge you to take action against the waste dump coming to our beautiful neighbourhood. This could effect people suffering with asthma and health of your children attending school at West Acton and other local schools.

I live beside the Park and walk my dogs there every day. Not knowing much about this problem, at first I thought I might be selfish objecting to the expansion of the Football Club. But then I realised that Meadow Park had been given to the town over 100 years ago for the community to use - not to be owned by an exclusive corporate company for profit which, needing to expand again, should be accepting national guidelines and moving further away from a town centre anyway. It should certainly not be taking community property of such practical and intrinsic value to the whole community who may or may not follow the league. A couple of weeks ago, there was a 13 strong flock of geese making a pit stop on our little park which prompted another impromptu discussion about the value of every blade of grass or tree contained there. Non of that is up for sale or lease to anyone. Obviously this little oasis in the midst of cement, patrimony of the community, antidote to the stress of urban living and venue for community events right in the middle of the town is valuable. The Boreham Wood Football Club has been allowed to gradually encroach on the park and now wants to take, fence off and profit from our space so what is left cannot accommodate traditional town events in the future Besides the need to protect dwindling urban park space (Borehamwood is growing alarmingly), Meadow Park is anyway used for many other outdoor activities. And there are football youth groups playing every week (they are not permitted to use 'the expensive' Football Club facilities which are private). If lots of us come together to sign the petition, we might be able to convince the council to stop the plans.