Because schools funds have been cut 6 percent but the council don't mind wasting our money on electric.

Because plastic is causing so much pollution in our seas.There are now small bottles to fill up ourselves from larger ones at home to use through airports so these would be ideal for people to use on weekends away. It more than likely adds to our costs of staying in hotels as well.

No new opencast coal mines have started in England since 2013. Since then the Government has said that it will phase-out coal by 2025. It's vital that we prevent a new mine starting which would cause local and international environmental destruction and which the local community have clearly rejected. Bradley is a greenfield site in County Durham between the villages of Dipton and Leadgate. The site supports a wealth of plants and animals, including Great Crested Newts, badgers, red kites. Banks Group plan to mine 550,000 tonnes of coal from the site, starting work this spring. The Bradley opencast mine is a case where the original decision to grant planning was grossly wrong and the development is likely to damage the wider public interest. Since the planning permission was granted in June 2015 there have been significant changes in national and international policy with regards to coal and climate change. 1) Coal use in the UK has dropped to 7% of the UK’s energy mix compared with 30% in 2014. 2) The government has said it will phase-out coal by 2025. 3) The UK and Canadian governments want to be world leaders with their Powering Past Coal Alliance. 4) The Paris Agreement requires that action is taken to prevent global temperatures from raising by 2 degrees and pursue efforts to keep them from a 1.5 degree raise. Thomas Davison, 28-year-old a resident living 300 metres away from the proposed opencast site said; “Banks' desire to extract 550,000 tonnes of coal is driven by nothing more than profit and not at all by a genuine need for energy. We have moved onto other forms of cleaner energy for the good of our global climate. So why is it worth harming the local wildlife and the local economy for one last money grab?”

The Council intend to change the green belt to brown belt in a small quaint rural village at Broomhill in Barnsley. We want to stop the application to build on our green belt. The effect this will have on our village and the abundance of wild life will be catastrophic. Both residents and visitors alike enjoy the countryside that surrounds us from dog walkers, bird watchers to ramblers. Our wild life play a big part in making our village an attraction to all. The influx of traffic and housing would be devastating. We have an abundance of squirrels, rabbits, foxes, owls and bats to name a few not to mention an extremely large variety of birds. The surrounding wetlands attracts, swans, geese, ducks, coots and a variety of other wild life. To build on our green belt would be devastating to the wild life not to mention the residents who have enjoyed the peace and tranquillity of living in the countryside.

Many schools don't have a recycling budget and can't afford to recycle. Even batteries end up in landfill. Recycling is important to reduce environmental and habitat damage and global warming. It also helps to reuse resources and materials that are valuable and take a lot of energy to produce and are in limited supply. The school curriculum teaches students environmental protection, global warming, recycling and sustainable use of resources. Yet this is not seen in practice. Schools are not setting a good example to students.

In the UK alone we waste over 7 billion tonnes of food. Most of which can be eaten and is perfectly fit for human consumption however many companies don’t do this due to: A the cost of processing and transporting this food to food banks, or B they won’t give it away for fear of legal repucussions. I want to see a change in government policy that impose strict fines on companies that waste over proposed targets. And promote and support companies giving away food to food banks and other charitable causes.

We need answers from all parties involved. The school is a big part of our community.

We've all seen the disturbing photos in the media lately of our plastic waste littering the planet. About a year ago I decided to reduce my household waste. I started buying from vegetable stalls, selective items from supermarkets and I travelled to zero waste shops. It was tough to juggle with life and a family and when December hit, with two boys birthdays, parties and Christmas our house became swamped again. And then it dawned on me - I can't do this alone. I can't quietly go Plastic Free. I need to be noisy, I need to let others know what I'm trying to do here. I need to create change. But change is tricky especially when you try to do it all at once. And lots of people out there do not have the time to shop at lots of different stores. So I'm asking Tesco to make one change. To set them an achievable first step towards plastic free. (After all, Every Little Helps) I want Tesco to set an example by changing the way they package their rice and pasta to paper packaging because the current plastic packaging is well, plastic and worse still, non recyclable. I am trying to promote easy swaps that people can make to make their supermarket shop plastic free, however rice and pasta are one of the hardest areas to find alternatives. Thanks for signing and please share! The Plastic Free Mama @theplasticfreemama

As everyone knows if flood plains are built on the water has to divert somewhere else usually with catastrophic results !!! We have seen this over the years where villages have been washed away, animals drowned and homes have been destroyed with flooding !! The Government have told all councils they must provide more homes and totally disregard the dangers and destruction of building on or near flood Plains! This is happening now in Hale Village and Halebank . The Government and Environmental Agency are NOT acknowledging flood plains in our area even though they actually flood!!! We must all fight this immediately before it happens in other areas !!! Please sign the petition telling the Government they can't do this !!!

Many jobs and much of Scotland's iconic wildlife depend on the health of our coastal environment. But Fergus Ewing, Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy & Connectivity (REC) is determined to expand Scotland’s production of farmed salmon by 2030. This would be an act of sheer recklessness given the grave concerns surrounding the industry as it is practised today. The REC committee will hold an inquiry into salmon farming in Scotland later this year. It is vital that we make our voices heard and let our MSPs know that there can be no expansion of salmon farming without radical reform. Here are the issues at stake: • Scotland's seas are home to incredible wildlife, including wild salmon, sea trout, porpoises, dolphins, whales and seals and are home to a wealth of life on the seabed which is vital to our valuable crab, prawn and lobster fisheries. They are under acute threat because of the harmful impacts of open net salmon farming. • A truly sustainable coastal economy can regenerate around many uses of restored seas and fisheries. Jobs are precious in rural areas. By allowing one industry to pollute the sea, we threaten jobs that use the sea sustainably, such as well-managed fisheries and wildlife tourism. By protecting them, the coastal economy can thrive long term. • Parasitic sea lice, thriving in overcrowded open net salmon pens, are driving wild salmon and sea trout numbers to dangerously low levels. • Toxic chemicals to treat sea lice now exceed safe levels in at least 45 Scottish sea lochs, and studies implicate them in harm to crustaceans and other forms of marine life far from the farm cages. • Some 130 salmon farms on Scotland's west coast use Acoustic Deterrent Devices (ADDs) to scare away seals with loud underwater noises. If the ADDs don’t work, fish farmers are permitted to simply shoot them.These ADDs also affect porpoises, dolphins and whales, even though it is illegal to disturb them. • Now the industry, with the government's support, wants to double its annual production to around 300,000 tonnes of salmon by 2030. The environmental impacts are already dangerous, so if you care about the health of our marine environment, please act now! Tell the Scottish Government that salmon farmers must clean up their act before they are allowed to expand. The Salmon Aquaculture Reform Network Scotland (SARNS) is a growing coalition of community, coastal and environmental groups and concerned individuals from all over the west coast and islands of Scotland. We are campaigning for immediate reform of the salmon farming industry. Find out more here: https://salmonaquaculturescotland.wordpress.com/clean-up-scotlands-unsustainable-fish-farming-industry/ Thank you!

Bakkavor Alresford Salads have applied to the Environment Agency for a renewal licence to continue to put into the river their daily factory wash down described as TRADE EFFLUENT containing a cocktail of powerful chemicals to replace and supposedly improve on the chlorine based biocide they have been using for years. Their impenetrable application can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/so24-9dz-bakkavor-foods-limited-environmental-permit-application-advertisement This application is important to the river and the environment and raises many questions, some of which are listed below; Is the quality of the river Itchen important? YES. It is protected by being in a Site Special Scientific Interest and has the highest European rating as a Special Area of Conservation. Has the Environment Agency, charged with protection of this pristine and iconic river, been successful over the last twenty years? NO. Alresford Pond is now full of man made chemicals and the Upper Itchen fails water quality objectives under the Water Framework Directive and falls short of conservation objectives under the EU Habitats Directive. How does the Upper Itchen compare with other rivers? VERY BADLY. Directly comparable sampling has shown that the Upper Itchen carries about 5% of the shrimp population in the upper river Meon which has no washing plant. This is indicative of what is happening to all fly and bug life in the Itchen. Is the water quality in the Itchen improving? There is NO EVIDENCE that it is and much evidence of a thirty year uninterrupted decline. Does polluting the river matter? YES. It matters to all aquatic life from sticklebacks to trout and much bird life from king fishers to swifts. Does chlorine discharged from the factory dissipate? YES after years if discontinued. If this licence renewal is refused is there an alternative? YES. The factory should connect to the sewer for all contaminated water. Has the Environment Agency required any other company to do this? YES. The salad washing plant at St Mary Bourne was obliged to make this connection years ago despite the Bourne not having the environmental protection of the Itchen.. Can the company afford the cost of making the connection? YES. The owners Bakkovor, a multinational company, has an income of £1.7billion a year. If the contaminated factory discharge went to the sewer would it resolve the river’s pollution problem? Probably not but it would be a first step. IF YOU BELIEVE THAT THIS LICENCE SHOULD NOT BE ISSUED BY THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY YOU SHOULD WRITE TO: ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, Permitting and Support Centre, WQ Team, Quadrant 2, 99 Parkway Avenue, SHEFFIELD , S9 4WF Although not directly relevant to this licence you might also ask yourself whether you think that the pesticides, insecticides, fertilizer, soil or whatever, should not be washed off these salad vegetables in the various countries of their origin rather than trucked or flown and trucked to Alresford to be washed into the pure spring water of the River Itchen.

Council bullies in solar loo grab! Local residents face a David and Goliath battle with Hackney Council to retain ownership of the community restored Brooksby’s Walk public convenience. The Council plan to terminate the community’s lease on 8th February. Residents re-opened the toilets serving Chatsworth Road, left closed by the Council for 30 years. After a long campaign and formation of the Clapton Improvement Society, they were granted a 5year lease in 2013, with the promise of a 100year peppercorn lease to follow. The Society raised funds from the Lottery and loans from members to renovate the toilets and convert the gents to a café/restaurant to pay for their maintenance. The current operator is David Bez’s Pride Kitchen, a vegetarian café. Altogether more than £40,000 has been invested. Clapton has Britain’s only luxury sustainable solar powered free public toilets as a result. But from the beginning, the Council has made life difficult for the volunteers. Officials raised a series of petty complaints about the works done by local contractors. Building inspectors demanded an expensive sprinkler system and then didn’t issue the certificate after completion of the works. A local councillor raised unverified complaints about the café and persuaded the licensing committee to refuse an extension of hours, which had been granted planning permission after an appeal to the independent planning inspectorate. Now the Council’s estates department is seeking to terminate the community’s ownership on wholly spurious grounds (including not having the building completion certificate) without any plans to keep the toilets open. “It’s an outrage!” says Society secretary Mary Doyle. “ As someone who is wheelchair fast, this is the only local toilet I can use”. “The Council has always resented our campaign to re-open the toilets and provide decent facilities on the street. Now they want to steal our community asset. Far from helping community initiatives as they boast in glossy reports, they undermine, bully and ignore them when they can.” PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION!