In January 2015 Cllr Damian White who is the cabinet member for housing announced a proposal to rename buildings in the Highfield Road Estate in Collier Row after commonwealth countries at an estimated cost of £130,000. This is at a time when so many cuts are being made to local services. This proposal has been supported by MP Andrew Rosindell who actually employs Cllr Damian White. This affects all Havering council tax payers and will cause all the residents of this estate a great deal of inconvenience as they will have to change all of their address details with the DVLA, Banks, Doctors e.t.c. Please sign this petition if you do not want this ridiculous proposal to go ahead. It will also help if as many of you as possible leave a comment explaining why you have signed this petition, especially if you are one of the local residents who will have to face the inconvenience of changing all of your details. Please see http://www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/news/130_000_to_rename_collier_row_estate_no_thanks_1_3936382 http://www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/news/commonwealth_row_council_confirm_unpopular_plans_to_rename_estate_for_queen_s_milestone_1_4114893

This is very important because the situation in Syria is disastrous and the number of people who are killed and dispersed is similar to the second world war. Britain generally, Wales and Swansea specifically has along and proud tradition of providing refuge at times of crisis. EU countries have agreed on a quota of 60,000 Syrian refugees to be accepted in each country. Germany has taken 30,000 so far. Where are we in this? Only 187 Syrian people has been accepted so far. People there are killed by three large armies. The government army supplied by Russian artillery, the Isis terrorists groups, and also the American warplanes which is targeting civilian's area anonymously in its search for the Isis and killing the innocent civilians who live there. Most refugees have witnessed horrific violence and many have seen their homes destroyed by bombs or have lost family members. Thousands of Syrians flee their country every day. They often decide to finally escape after seeing their neighbourhoods bombed or family members killed. For all the reasons mentioned above we have to take part in welcoming the most vulnerable refugees in the word, of which the Syrians make the largest part of.

Andrew Smith MP sums it up brilliantly: “It would be socially damaging and a false economy if more children and young people are held back in deprivation and troubled lives as a result, because the long term human and economic costs of that are huge.” Please do not shut our childrens' centres, they are invaluable resources in our troubled times, and to remove them will cause even more suffering and hardship for those already most in need. The council has agreed to reduce its £16m budget for children’s centres and early intervention hubs by 2018. It is part of savings of £284m planned, but Councillors say more may be needed in the face of further Government cuts expected next year. (source:Oxford Mail, 16th June 2015.)

Do you think that British citizens living in EU countries and worldwide should be able to vote in the UK's EU referendum? There are at least 3 million Brits living in EU countries but many of them will not be able to vote! The results of the referendum will affect all of us, no matter where we live. Do you know that British citizens who have lived abroad for more than 15 years lose their right to vote in UK elections? David Cameron has promised in this Parliament to give UK citizens living abroad a lifetime right to vote in UK elections, but he has said that this will not happen before the EU referendum. If Britain did leave the EU, what would happen to people who live in EU countries? Would they become illegal immigrants in their EU homes? Would they lose their rights in those countries? What if they all came back to Britain? Where would they live? What would they do? A lot of ex-pat Brits are old. How would they cope, and how would the UK cope with them? Isn't it unfair and a bit crazy that they cannot vote in a referendum that will affect every part of their lives?

More than three million UK pupils are being under-funded for their education because central government, incredibly, does not fund basic education costs and extra learning needs equally across the country. Local Authorities are allocated money for schools based on out-dated, historical criteria, which has created shocking underfunding of pupils in more than 50 areas, across the country. Schools in those areas have only managed through their thrift, resourcefulness and others' charity. Their deprived children have not received the extra funding that they need and would receive if they lived elsewhere in England and all of their pupils have been affected. This unacceptable situation has been going on for decades, obscured to the public by layers of funding complexity. But no longer: it is time for parents and communities to push for change urgently, because, with education cuts forecast, more than a ⅓ of the already underfunded schools can no longer make do and mend - they face bankruptcy. Millions of our children's futures are at stake.

The Scottish Parliament was brought into being to bring the standards of democracy in Britain up to those in other parts of the European Union. For Westminster to give itself the right to disolve that parliament at any time without the agreement of the Scottish people is not only against the will of the Scottish people but the will of the Council of Europe. In taking away the Scottish Governments power to veto the repeal 'The Human Rights' Act, Westminster also taking away the rights of the Scottish people who did not vote for the Conservatives or Labourbut voted for 56 SNP mps to represent them.

Many people don’t know that North Lanarkshire Council do not regard Shotts as a Town. The Council prefer to divide our community into two neighbourhood centers of Stane and Dykehead. In 2013 Councillor Cochrane and Councillor Cefferty put a motion to North Lanarkshire council that Shotts be recognized as a Town. This was defeated, Shotts is still not regarded as a Town. Our community cannot apply for Town Centre regeneration as to quote North Lanarkshire Council, “Shotts is not a Town”

It's official: George Osborne has just announced Britain's biggest ever privatisation. He's going ahead and selling off RBS at a loss of £13bn -- a huge loss to the taxpayer. It's part of the rush to privatise Britain -- an ideological move to hand over power and profit to corporations. Just as he's pushing through £12bn of welfare cuts that will hit the poorest and most vulnerable in society, Osborne is prepared to sell RBS off at a £13bn loss. £13bn is enough to plug the gap, protecting our public services and preventing austerity. We’re already paying for the banking crisis that we didn’t cause, and now Osborne wants to return RBS on the cheap to the people who caused the crisis in the first place. Just a few months ago, George Osborne was insisting we’d get our money -- the £45.2bn spent to save RBS from collapse -- back from any sale of the bank. Now, after the election, he thinks he can get away with selling it at a massive loss by rushing through the sale before we have time to stop him. Let’s prove Osborne wrong.

Many Students are going to be priced out of education if this grant is cut, many students will not be able to go, or be faced with enormous debt and will feel frightened of the huge lifetime loans. This grant is a lifeline for poorer students. There are students who have worked hard, they’ve got the grades and now they don’t know whether they’ll be able to go to university. Even if they worked part time whilst studying, it still would not be enough money to live on. Please sign and share so we can stop this madness and help our next generations of students become wonderful teachers, scientists, doctors, etc. Education is for people from all walks of life not just rich people. Being poor should not be a trap preventing a university education. We are one of the richest nations in the world, stopping student maintenance grants would be catastrophic for many generations to come, curbing our future development as a country by not investing in young people. This is the wrong place for the government to make savings. Read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33444557

The government is considering reducing tax credits for millions of working families as part of its £12bn welfare cuts. Changes would cut entitlements for about 3.7 million low-income families by about £1,400 a year, the IFS said, and has calculated that for the poorest families it would mean a reduction of £845 per child per year. Mr Osborne's political allies are saying the move will increase 'incentives to work' and Senior Tory sources are trying to suggest that tax credits have allowed big companies to get away with paying employees lower wages. During the general election, Prime Minister David Cameron promised he would not be cutting many benefits - including the state pension, pensioner benefits, and child benefit. It appears this didn't include child tax credits! On a recent appearance on BBC Two's Newsnight, David Skelton, director of the Conservative pressure group Renewal, stated that he agreed the tax credit bill could be lowered. "you have a lot of employers who are basically getting subsidy from the state for low paid work and we'd like to see a shift towards those employers who can afford to pay the living wage to pay the living wage." Mr Skelton said. The conservatives believe that this move will encourage workers to work more hours if they can, or if they are working part time at the moment. And also get to see a higher minimum wage over time as well. What is apparent is that this will hit the poorest hard in the short term with no guarantees that the lost benefits will be made up. Vulnerable families will have to work longer hours to maintain their current levels of income or loose out. We propose that these cuts do not go ahead. Stephen Timms, Labour's acting work and pensions secretary, said plans to cut £12bn from social security would hit "working families and children hard". "It's clear that David Cameron and George Osborne's plan will make working families less secure," he said. These cuts are an idea that is among many being considered now as the Tories wrestle with how to deliver their pledge to cut £12bn from Britain's £220bn budget for benefits and tax credits. We need to act now to show how many of us would be disappointed in such a decision.

Contact your local MP and ask them to keep the Hunting Ban in place. Go to https://www.writetothem.com/ and ask them their views. If they are voting to repel the ban then you can send through letters to push the other point of view and we use the following as a guideline: We can only hope that the crisis in the NHS and our economy and the poverty situation are now under control in the UK in order for 'traditional countryside pastimes and elite hobbies' such as fox hunting to get any air time in parliament at all. Maybe this is coming straight from Mr. Cameron with orders for all Conservative MPs to vote for repeal ? Many MPs complain of Mr. Blair wasting time previously on this - I disagree as I think it was a landmark in our society of humane overcoming inhumane and to repeal an act that went through 10 years ago is a waste of time for sure. Many counties are indeed rural constituency but foxes are of no threat to arable land and indeed keep rabbit numbers down protecting crops. Then there is the cost of running the hunt - it is not cheap to keep that many dogs and horses in good health and this is surely a waste of farmers time and money if the land is mainly arable - perhaps not the farmers that are fox hunting? Farmers are not the richest people in the world as we know due to the criminal acts of supermarkets and EU issues and we are fully aware of the costs linked into being part of the elite world of fox hunting. Which brings us onto the word 'tradition' - bear bating was a tradition once as was cock fighting and both are now banned - and rightly so! Surely the chasing of a fox through the countryside with a load of people dressed up in finery is not really the issue - the issue we are taking about here is its classification as sport - how can it be sport with so many against one fox? Have you ever witnessed the kill - it is not humane, it is not quick. In ecological terms if you kill an animal another will take its place - this is how the nature works so well without us - so maybe we should be protecting our livestock better - just a thought? Also many people have been caught up in the hunt whilst out in the fields, on footpaths and even walking through villages whilst on the footpath! You can not contain and control a pack of hounds on the scent of a fox and there will only be more conflict as they run across arable land, private land and through villages and people's gardens. They must surely damage crops in their pursuit of the fox and surely this is an issue?! If the area is one with livestock you often here the woeful cry from the fox hunters that they never catch one - then why would you go to so much effort and cost just to ride around on horse back and damage the environment and scare the life out of countryside walkers and people enjoying the serenity and beauty of the countryside for no supposed benefit to farmers? This is surely then classed as a leisure activity and therefore we ask again - why waste time on trying to reintroduce it when you can still drag hunt? I wonder how many of your constituents realise you are voting to repeal the ban?

Simply because if the financing is not equal then it's not just about fairness but essentially undemocratic to have a Yes or No vote decided upon by which side can spew out the most propaganda.