What Opponents are Saying: "If this mine were to go ahead and the coal that is now safely underground in the custody of Cumbria County Council were to end up as CO2 in the atmosphere, there would be a serious risk of climate change impacts including some thousands of deaths extending long into the future. The mine could also result in global loss of livelihoods and homes numbering many times greater than the jobs created in Cumbria." Laurie Michaelis. ( He was a Lead Author or Convening Lead Author on several IPCC reports, including the Special Report on Emission Scenarios). "Disturbance of nesting seabirds during construction and operation... The development has the potential to have an adverse effect upon the St Bees Head SSSI through disturbance to both breeding and wintering birds during construction and operation." RSPB “ little supporting information appears to have been provided by the applicant regarding the excavation of the new drifts" National Trust “It is clear that this is a very large mine, with a very long life span…of 20-50 years and a peak of 2.8 million tonnes a year. Assuming a 40 year life (following construction), and an average of 2 million tonnes a year, that is a total production of 80 million tonnes, which will emit around 175 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. The level of emissions and proposed life-time of the mine is of major concern….We would also query whether or not there has been robust enough analysis of the potential for seismicity (and subsidence) relating to well-known nuclear facilities in the wider area, including Sellafield and proposed new facility at Moorside? What potential is there for seismicity to effect these and other facilities (including the low level waste repository at Drigg) and the possible high level waste radioactive waste facility which has been proposed in West Cumbria for some time.” Friends of the Earth "The mining company’s aspiration is that scarce investment funding will come from Cumbria’s Local Enterprise Partnership. I will be very interested to understand the business justification for any such investment.” Graham Vincent, Portfolio Holder for Economy, South Lakeland District Council “The application should be rejected because it is not in the national interest. From reviewing the documents submitted by West Cumbria Mining it is clear that the intention is to export the coal to Europe and Asia…The application to mine is too close to the Sellafield nuclear site and the proposal for another nuclear power station at Moorside. Underground mining can have a significant impact on the surrounding areas, recently a coking coal mine in Russia triggered an earthquake.” Coal Action Network "There are significant risks of subsidence offshore, where there are known to be layers of chemical and radioactive pollution on the sea bed. The application addresses this by extracting only a significant distance off shore, and pumping mining waste back into the voids which it is claimed will reduce the subsidence risk. a. Toxic substances disturbed by subsidence would move freely through the marine environment and there could be no way of preventing adverse impacts in protected areas, and to fish and other marine organisms. One impact which can bring the reality of the risk home to us, is that the percentage of multi-wintering salmon returning to Cumbrian rivers has reduced from 25% to 2-3%. All the rest die at sea. Our river salmon populations are plummeting, and have been described as an extinction event, and it is due to changes in the marine ecology and environment." Mrs Maggie Mason BA(Arch) Dip TP "As I understand it, the sole justification from a sustainability point of view is that the extracted coal will be coking coal, not thermal coal (for use in power stations), with some preposterous notion that this will apparently produce a lower carbon footprint than coking coal imported from other countries. Yet so far as I can tell, no detailed lifecycle analysis, both direct and indirect, has been done by West Cumbria Mining, so why would anyone swallow that particular pile of coking crap?" Jonathon Porritt "Given that this coal mine would extend to just 8km from Sellafield's high level radioactive wastes it is incumbent on Cumbria County Council to remember that the precautionary principle is at the heart of Environmental Law in the UK. A good reason to invoke the precautionary. principle is the possibility of liquefaction at Sellafield resulting from earthquakes in the West Cumbria area as described in a recent scientific paper by Martin Cross, Anass Attya, David J. A. Evans : The susceptibility of glacigenic deposits to liquefaction under seismic loading conditions: a case study relating to nuclear site characterization in West Cumbria". Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole, a Radiation Free Lakeland campaign "When the coal mines are exhausted, there is a high risk that the exhausted empty coal mines will be used as a nuclear waste repository, wherein nuclear waste fragments from nearby Sellafield will be mixed with liquid concrete and then injected under high pressure into the empty coal mines to backfill them. If the concrete encapsulation fails, the coal mines will be a constant source of nuclear contamination in future.." Dr Timothy Norris The Environment Agency, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Scientists for Global Responsibility, Dr Laurie Michaelis IPCC author and others continue to state that insufficient evidence has been provided by the developers with no independent assessments having been carried out or asked for by the Council.. The Committee was misled into unanimous approval of the coal mine. We urge the Secretary of State to call this application in for his own determination at the earliest opportunity.

I personally have just got over breast cancer in 2017 and like so many of us, 1 in 8 now in the UK population, I am hoping and working hard with treatment to try to ensure it doesn't come back - but then part of that future is not in my hands. I have seen men and women, young and old experience cancer - some have survived others not. But at some point, unfortunately this disease will effect us all at some point. Please join me in petitioning government to protect cancer treatment and its diagnosis - our lives matter as much as anyone elses'! Help us to save our lives - and that includes your's ....

If everyone who saw this, signed and shared it would achieve its objective within the hour! NO WASTE INCINERATOR IN CAMBRIDGE: PROTECT OUR AIR QUALITY AND PUBLIC HEALTH Unborn babies, infants and children are most at risk from incinerator emissions research has proven. Waste incinerators are associated with direct causal links to all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality and mortality from lung cancer, higher rates of adult and childhood cancer, birth defects, increased respiratory hospital admissions, a range of emotional and behavioural problems in children, learning difficulties, and delinquency, cell level genetic changes which pose a risk to future generations , and in problems in adults including violence, dementia, depression and Parkinson’s disease, after adjustment for other factors. These findings come from a wide variety of peer reviewed research, meta-analysis and reports conducted by The World Health Organisation (WHO), British Heart Foundation, British Lung Foundation, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, The British Society for Ecological Medicine, DEFRA, Asthma UK, Client Earth. All conclude that incinerators should NOT be approved. This directly affects your health and that of your family and friends. Don’t say you weren’t warned! YOUR VOICE MATTERS and IT DOES COUNT. If approved against all advice from world leading environment, climate change and health advisory bodies, Cambridge air pollution WILL increase, forever, with significant and predictable life threatening and life changing health consequences for many, particularly affecting the most vulnerable youngest members of society. Amey Cespa proposes a £200M waste incinerator in Cambridge that will burn 250,000 tonnes commercial and household waste /yr, from 5 counties incl. Isle of Wight (selling surplus to China), fed at this rate minimum to justify investment. AC already provides facilities for waste recycling, composting, landfill and mechanical biological treatment. Yes, it proposes energy for 45,000 homes and 300 jobs during construction and operations but does that justify proven and predictable health effects above? Read them again – all-cause mortality, cancer, mental health, adverse effects in unborn babies, infants and children who by nature are in a biological window of vulnerability. AC submitted their application 20th Dec for a 21 day public consultation, just before the busiest holiday period of the year. They have followed min. statutory requirements to notify the public. For such a major infrastructure application that presents enormous city wide public health and environmental impact, providing 2 short notice site public information meetings (advertised briefly in neighbouring villages) and 2 recent short notice neighbouring parish council meetings, it does appear like AC would rather prefer the application flew very much under the public radar. The UK and Cambridge has a problem with waste management but if incineration is the answer, somebody asked the wrong question. Waste incineration in Cambridge will produce an unprecedented health risk for people living in and around the city, air pollution WILL increase and forever with significant and predictable health consequences. AC cannot guarantee that waste incineration is safe for public health. Toxin emissions and particulate pollution have to go somewhere. EC reports advise reducing NOT increasing air pollution to reduce and prevent land, coast and sea ecosystem damage due to acidification, thus also protecting water, food chains and organic farmers. There is already local evidence of significant health impacts from the AC Cambridge waste management site. 2016- AC was fined by Cambridge magistrates £50,000 for causing sickness and adverse effects on human health, and prior to these incidents, received 3 enforcement notices 2015 by the Environment Agency. ‘AC fined £50,000’ by F Snoad, Cambridge Evening News, Sep 2016. The environment agency continues to receive regular calls reporting problems with air quality relating to this site. Local newspapers have reported ongoing problems with local residents and workers complaining of feeling sick, gagging, wheezing, sore eyes and throats, constant unpleasant smells causing them to have to keep windows shut. ‘The waste park is poisoning us: Cambridgeshire villagers concern at Amey recycling centre’ by Samar Maguire, Cambridge Evening News, Sep 2017. It is enshrined in EC and UK legislation that reducing emissions produces true health benefits, prevents unnecessary burden on healthcare, and protects against the impacts of acid air and water on local and wide ranging ecosystems including land, coast and sea. Costs of incineration, together with research investigating nonstandard emissions from incinerators, has demonstrated that the hazards of incineration are greater than previously realised including that relating to fine and ultrafine particulates. Operating waste incinerators in urban areas results in dangerous health and environmental consequences from both construction and operation. The accumulated evidence on the health risks of incinerators is simply too strong to ignore and their use in Cambridge cannot be justified now that better, cheaper and far less hazardous methods of waste disposal have become available. The planned chimney stack height is out of keeping with surrounding local village architecture and the Fenland landscape: contravening NPPF guidelines. The proposed site is greenfield which will potentially be adjacent to major new residential areas. Waste minimisation, recycling and composting through innovation and behavioural change are the answer not incineration and certainly not in urban areas. Residents of Cambridge have human right to clean air and their health protected.

The removal of the bus stop is important for several reasons: 1. Pollution levels at the school are over the legal limit. 2. 44% of the pollution at the school comes from buses. And as much as 25% of pollution from buses travelling on their route is caused by them idling at bus stops. The potential for reducing pollution by removing the bus stop is therefore significant. 3. Children are especially vulnerable to the health impacts of air pollution, which include cardio-respiratory illnesses. This is because their immune systems and lungs are still developing. 3. A study has shown that children at school in high-pollution areas are slower to develop cognitively (i.e. their attentiveness, memory and brain development). 4. Removing the bus stop is one of the only ways to reduce the amount of toxic air our children are inhaling. We want action now!

The Government led Mid and South Essex Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP - formerly known as Success Regime) are 'selling' their scheme to the public by stating that separation of emergency and planned (elective) care alongside the centralisation of emergency care facilities, will relieve the burden on the three hospitals in this area, thus improving patient outcomes and relieve the current bed shortages, financial and recruitment crisis facing Southend, Basildon and Broomfield ( Mid Essex) hospitals. The bottom line is that this is a financially driven scheme and they need to slash the £400-500 million estimated financial deficit by 2020/21. The health of our local population is being sacrificed in the name of savings in an already highly underfunded NHS which is in crisis. If the Mid and South Essex STP plans are allowed to progress, annually over 5400 patients from the Southend Hospital catchment area alone will have their planned and emergency care re-located to either Basildon or Broomfield hospitals. There are a huge number of concerns that many of their preferred pathways for re-locating and centralising planned and emergency care specialities are detrimental to patient outcomes and will enforce a 'postcode lottery' for NHS services for our local, ever expanding population. The STP had to shelve their dangerous scheme in July 2017 for the A&E downgrades and blanket re-direction of 999 ambulances from Southend and Broomfield Hospital to a 'super A&E' at Basildon, following exposure that the 'on the floor clinicians' were NOT behind the plans and there was the mass public pressure, led by our campaigns. We acknowledge that there are certain conditions such as complex trauma and neurological issues which do indeed benefit patient outcome by transfer to specialist centres and those pathways are already in place. We stand by the opinions of the 'on the floor' clinicians working at our local hospital. We are all for any modernisation of health services IF there is a CLEAR, CLINICALLY EVIDENCE BASED CASE FOR CHANGE supported by adequately staffed community health services, early GP access and increased provision of social care beds and home support to assist discharging patients. There is however little independent clinical rationale for their proposals and the STP to date have not provided any detail about how they will transfer these vast numbers of acutely ill patients between the three hospitals, other than claim they will provide an 'in house transfer team' so they do not increase the pressure on the already understaffed and over-burdened East of England Ambulance Service. We say - by who? With what staff? At what cost to life? With emergency general surgery to name just one example, being moved from Southend to Broomfield - we feel it's a long and busy journey from Southend when you are in an ambulance desperately in need of an operation. If we are honest, we do not think the STP leads have ANY intention of such provision for a large, complex and expensive internal transfer service and the long term goal is to return to the downgrading of both Southend and Broomfield A&Es, redirecting most of the 999 emergencies to Basildon or Broomfield according to their medical or surgical pre-hospital diagnosis. Then there's the HUMAN factor - that many of our loved ones won't be in our LOCAL hospital at their time of crisis, where we can pop to see them (emotional well-being and support from family plays a huge role in patient improvement) or how do we get there 'in time' if we get 'the call' to come quickly. The Mid and South Essex STP are on a Government led timeframe to achieve massive financial savings and the whole STP proposals are built on mass improvement in primary care services (access to GPs, mental health practitioners, community nurses, physios, specialist children's practitioners etc) in the community via 'Locality HUBS' which allegedly will PREVENT many unnecessary hospital admissions. There is also a huge focus on 'self care' and the increased use of web-based apps for self-diagnosis and treatment. Currently and historically, there is a huge GP crisis in South Essex and a significant drop in the numbers of nursing and allied health professional applicants plus unfilled vacancies across the whole of the healthcare sector. Hubs may be located at increased distance from resident's homes than their current GP facility therefore causing issues of accessibility for many patient groups. Then there's the issue of actual investment in the creation of these 'locality hubs' and that these will take YEARS to actually significantly reduce the hospital admission rate in an area with an increasingly elderly population group and massively growing commercial and residential infrastructure. Despite all this, the Mid and South Essex STP still feel it is your best interests to completely re-structure acute hospital services and 'centralise' emergency care for acutely unwell medical and surgical patients in our town. We believe that they must not alter our acute hospital services if there is not the community care resources proven to be in place first. There has been no mention in the STP for provision of community social care beds for those patients discharged from hospital, yet still requiring further care or rehabilitation before they can safely go home. Investment in this would reduce the 'exit block' from our A&E, provide timely discharges back to the community and prevent cancelled operations, as there would once more be the availability of inpatient beds. These simple measures would alleviate much of the pressure on our local hospital without the need to re-locate essential and life-saving services. Our NHS is in crisis and we refuse to become collateral damage in the name of cuts. For further details of all of the concerns, please follow the SaveSouthendNHS page https://www.facebook.com/SaveSouthendNHS/ Twitter @NHSunited.

It is both necessary and vital to the well being and safe delivery of babies. It is extremely busy and well used facility with lovely caring staff. Women will now be forced to travel twice the distance to give birth. The only Hospital in Cardiff cant cope with demand and since closing a delivery ward in Royal Glamorgan women are being turned away due to no space. The skeleton staff left are overworked and having to cope without necessary resources. If this unit closes it puts the welfare of women and babies at risk, causes more stress, makes families travel further and puts remaining hospitals under more pressure.

Offering women Doppler scans to measure blood flow between the placenta and foetus, could cut the number of stillbirths each year by 50%. Another method of monitoring, which could cut the number by a further 22%, is the Growth Assisted Protocol (GAP). This works by giving each mother a customised growth chart to help ascertain the expected size that her baby should be throughout her pregnancy, so if the baby's growth falls then the mother is given extra, and potentially life saving, scans. Our Story Our daughter Sophie Louise Kirk was stillborn on 11th March 2016 after a period of reduced movement, it was the hardest day of our life, and she was just perfect. Since Sophie's death I set up a Facebook support group called 'Sophie's Angels' to help other grieving families, and a Facebook page called 'Our Angel Sophie' as a way of remembering our baby girl. Sophie would have likely been saved by either Doppler scans or GAP as she passed away from placental insufficiency, (possibly caused by a blood clotting disorder).

The Act makes it illegal to sleep rough and/or beg. Whilst I do not wish anybody to have to sleep rough or beg, the people who are forced to do so should not be persecuted in any fashion, let alone from a legal stance. The Act was written at a time when wealth defined whether you were a criminal or not, thus segregating the poor from the rich, as a wealthy person would never find themselves in that position. The Vagrancy Act is out of date common law and needs to be vanquished so that Councillors cannot try and force Police to enforce such legislation when they are on a power trip, such as in the case of https://news.sky.com/story/outrage-as-council-leader-asks-police-to-clear-homeless-before-royal-wedding-11194599

We love living in Gateshead's best kept secret... Birtley! But the streets and pavements of our little town have now gone beyond what is an acceptable level for public health. There are increasing amounts of litter but more worryingly, dog waste. People with buggies are finding it impossible to steer away from unwanted 'deposits' and in the summer when children wear sandals it's nothing short of dangerous. When I asked the local council what could be done I was told cuts to local authority budgets meant a street cleaning service can no longer be provided in the Birtley area. We love living in Birtley - great schools, a bustling high street and amazing people, but the cleanliness of the streets is now unacceptable. As residents, many of us are vigilant and make sure any litter is picked up. But more needs to be done! Will you join me in signing and sharing this petition, as well as doing what we can when we see litter, to make Birtley better?

The proposed changes will mean Basildon Hospital will become the only local 'specialist centre' for some stroke, heart and respiratory care. This means that many patients in Southend or Chelmsford will be transferred to Basildon for treatment. Public transport links are very poor between Chelmsford and Basildon (and even worse from further north in the county), and many people will find it very difficult, or impossible, to visit relatives and friends there. But such support networks are vital to patients in recovery. Additionally, Basildon Hospital has not been able to cope in recent years, and has often been on black alert. How will it cope with the extra demand? The STP has opened a public consultation into these proposed changes. Please sign the petition to let them know we think the planned changes compromise patient safety and recovery. There needs to be stroke, heart and respiratory care across the county - not just in Basildon. These proposals are part of Sustainability & Transformation Plans. These are the means by which the government is delivering huge cuts to our local health services. If you want to read more about the changes to our area you can here: file:///Users/jess/Downloads/NHS-Mid-and-South-Essex_Your-Care-in-the-Best-Place_Summary-Document.pdf https://midessexccg.nhs.uk/about-us/mid-and-south-essex-stp-joint-committee/committee-papers/november-2017-1/2703-full-part-i-papers-29-11-17/file

Rough sleeping has almost doubled in the last year, but, the number of supported beds for homeless people has plummeted. There is also not enough affordable accommodation for people to move on to, making matters worse. As a result, despite the goal of no second night out, rough sleepers are waiting an average of 12 weeks before some form of accommodation is provided. We therefore urge BHCC to fund resources to expand the amount of support accommodation available for homeless people all year round, not just when temperatures hit 0c and ensure that the existing budget available is spent. PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION BEFORE WEDNESDAY 31ST JAN 2018 so that we can take the signatures to the council at their next meeting. Please share this with family, friends, work colleagues, school mates, members of your clubs etc - it really does have an impact.* *My first petition to BHCC received 4,111 signatures. On the 6th April 2017 the Housing Committee passed the petition with 100% of the vote, which was then carried to the resources committee - who reserved £135,000 for night shelters. This funding has gone to finance a night shelter which the council opened on the 10th Dec 2017 in the Brighton Centre. Many thanks to all those who signed up, you made a big difference to some of the Brighton and Hove rough sleepers!

"(The NHS) is being starved of funds and progressively dismantled and replaced with corporate structures known as Accountable Care Organisations which will facilitate the introduction of American-style healthcare systems." (Allyson Pollock, Professor of Public Health. The Independent, November 3rd 2017) World-renowned scientist Professor Stephen Hawking owes his life to the NHS. He has joined Professor Pollock and other eminent NHS campaigners in an urgent legal action against Jeremy Hunt and NHS England for a judicial review of their ACO plans. These are due for implementation in 2018: http://www.crowdjustice.com/case/jr4nhs-round2/ WHY ARE ACOs SUCH A CONCERN? ACOs derive from the USA's enormously expensive public/private healthcare systems. With their advent we, the public and taxpayers, will face having to pay increasingly for our healthcare costs. To get prompt, accessible treatment we will have to pay for it out of our own pockets and/or pay for health insurance. Those of us who can't pay will face care rationing, delays, care denial and suffering for ourselves and those who matter to us. High risk patients, the sickness-prone and elderly, will face exclusion from care. That’s because ACOs will allow private companies like Virgin and Circle, including insurance companies, sub-contractors and property companies, to take over control of the running of our NHS. They will decide which services are provided and to whom; which services are to be provided free and which are to be charged. They will be paid more if they save money, encouraging cuts and reductions in services despite the risk to our health needs. They will receive NHS funding - our money - to do this. Our trust in medical practitioners will be undermined by the knowledge that our healthcare providers will be motivated by commercial considerations. This conversion of our NHS into a US-style public/private enterprise has been described by Professor Stephen Hawking as “an attack on the fundamental principles of the NHS”. It is being done by stealth, at great speed, without proper public information and consultation, and without the necessary parliamentary scrutiny and legislation. THAT'S WHY YOU MUST READ THIS PETITION PROPERLY. AND PLEASE SIGN IT. NO, WE CAN'T AFFORD US-STYLE PRIVATISATION. It is NHS England's spending of huge sums on privatisation (estimated at £4.5 billion+ a year), rather than on rising public healthcare needs, that is a major factor in making the NHS 'unsustainable'. Private companies, with their dividend payments, bank loan charges and add-on management fees, cost far more than state-funded, low interest, in-house provision. NHS ENGLAND are also paying huge fees for private consultants with US interests like McKinsey and United Health subsidiary Optum. NHS England’s CEO Simon Stevens is a former United Health senior executive. The lawyers, accountants, billing agents and added management for contracting NHS services add to the heavy costs of privatisation. Company secrecy laws obscure these costs. PRIVATISATION - BAD FOR OUR HEALTH. BAD FOR OUR POCKETS. Studies, including by the World Health Organisation, show that the USA’s public/private healthcare systems, with their ACOs, cost far more than any other leading nation including the UK. Yet the USA consistently ranks lowest in healthcare quality and public access. We don’t want that here. YES, WE CAN AFFORD A FULLY NATIONALISED NHS. The savings made by abolishing privatisation and renationalising the NHS would be a major step towards covering all our healthcare needs. Modest tax increases on the best off and monetary interventions used by the authorities for bank bailouts and national debt financing since the 2008 Banking Crisis could be used for any NHS funding gaps. These have been market-friendly. WHAT LEGISLATION DO WE NEED TO SAVE OUR NHS? The proposed NHS Reinstatement Bill is draft legislation for abolishing privatisation and re-establishing the NHS as a publicly-funded, publicly-run, publicly-accountable, all-round service for everyone. WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP? Support legal actions (like Professor Hawking's) against the responsible authorities: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/jr4nhs-round3/ The legal action by claimants Professor Hawking, Professor Allyson Pollock and other eminent campaigners has won an important part of its case - Jeremy Hunt has been forced concede to having proper public consultations before he and NHS England can proceed with implementing any ACOs. And the judge has allowed that the case on the remaining points could proceed but ruled that the claimants must be liable for full legal costs, with no cap allowed on them. This means that CrowdJustice have had to launch another round of fundraising. This urgently needs support. Write to your MP asap asking him/her to sign the Early Day Motion 660. This calls on the Government to provide parliamentary time to debate and vote on the ACO plans: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2017-19/660 Write to your MP and local councillors asking them to support the NHS Reinstatement Bill: http://www.nhsbillnow.org/ PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION AND CIRCULATE IT AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE. USEFUL INFORMATION: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-hunt-health-department-nhs-legal-action-americanise-privatisation-customers-id-pay-a8033986.html Professor Allyson Pollock's much viewed TED talk (18 mins): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz5dl9fhj7o NHS In Stitches (3 mins): https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=93&v=2FxacqvVsok