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Birmingham Councils Unfair Bus Lane FinesApprox. £1.9m was wrongly collected from 70 thousand motorists who were not aware they were even entering a bus lane. The adjudicator said the signs were confusing and inadequate, so these fines should not be enforced. Innocent motorists, many of whom were visiting the nearby Children's Hospital, have paid the fines not realising the Councils serious errors, but no offence whatsoever has been committed. Birmingham City Council are refusing to repay the money and now refuse to discuss this in the public domain, reverting to debating in a private session with no one else allowed to know what has happened in the meeting. Citizens and visitors to Birmingham, experiencing recently altered city centre road layouts, will find this confusing. You can read more about how this happened here: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/new-birmingham-city-centre-bus-668147685 of 100 SignaturesCreated by john cheney
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Improve the services provided by Northern RailTo improve the quality of the North's rail lines, by encouraging the main rail service to improve its quality of service, so people in the north of England don't feel neglected. This will also encourage more people to use the train. More people want a reliable rail service, so commuting between cities should be more comfortable and reliable79 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Joshua Bastow
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Stop airport expansion in the United KingdomOur country is polluted enough with airports and the infrastructure that goes with them. They are large enough already so that people who live in their vicinity are suffering serious noise and air pollution not just from the aircraft themselves but from the vehicles transporting people to and from the airports. Plus there are the delivery vehicles for food, drink, fuel, etc, etc. We have reached breaking point in this "green and pleasant land". It will cease to be so before very long. Business is perfectly capable of video-conferencing in this modern age. With the channel tunnel and shipping there are other means of transport. We must learn to live within our means and if this means we go no longer go on long-haul holidays on the other side of the world, then so be it. Otherwise we will destroy the planet : we cannot move to another one : there is only one planet Earth. We must remember : "We do not inherit the Earth from our parents; we borrow it from our children".92 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Rudi Affolter
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We Want Our Railways BackWhy it matters I am addressing this petition to the above three party leaders because I have no real idea who will form the next government after May 2015. Our national railways were privatised in the 1990 with the usual promises of better services, cheaper fares, less or no pull on the taxpayer and ownership by us, the British public. Despite the fact of course that we already owned the railway. As with every privatisation before and after it the results have been very different to those promised. However it is true that many train companies that run franchises in the UK are publicly owned, but by other European countries. Arriva is a wholly owned subsidiary of the German national rail company Deutsche Bahn, and runs the Arriva Trains Wales and Cross Country franchises. The French national rail operator SNCF has a majority stake in Keolis, which operates the Trans Pennine franchise in partnership with FirstGroup. Keolis is also a minority partner in the Govia rail operating company, which runs the Southern, Southeastern and London Midland services. The Dutch state railway company Nederlandse Spoorwegen owns Abellio, which has a 50% stake in Serco-Abellio, which runs the Merseyrail and Northern Rail franchises. Abellio also runs Scotrail. European governments make millions of pounds a year in dividends from their British operations. From the subsidies paid by British tax payers. Please do not read this piece as an 'anti-foreigner' rant. I simply do not understand how paying other governments vast profits to run our railways is good for the British people. Since privatisation billions of pounds of tax payer subsidised profits have gone into the coffers of other governments. There is one railway still at the moment in the hands of the UK tax payer. The state-owned East Coast railway paid £225m to the government in the year to March 2014. In our hands now but for how long. We are about to sell our stake in Eurostar. Who to? It seems the French State Railways SNCF. As a side word I can tell you that last year I travelled First Class on SNCF from Tarbes in the South West of France to Paris, a journey of about 600 Km, for a cost of 45 Euros. Subsidised? Probably. Should I thank the British taxpayer for their contribution? So the publicly owned East Coast Railway paid £225m in 'profits' to the UK taxpayers. What should we do with it now? Privatise it seems. And one of the front runners to take over this publicly owned success story? It seems its a joint venture between Keolis and Eurostar, subsidiaries of France's state-owned railway company, SNCF. So should I book my return journey to Tarbes now or wait a little while. After all it could be even cheaper in a few months.60 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Ken Long
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Traffic calming in WoodmansterneLetter sent to MP: I write to you requesting your urgent attention on the untenable traffic situation in Carshalton Road which is becoming virtually impossible to access my stables without fear of accident. We raised this issue in 2010, yet it was deemed not dangerous enough to warrant action given that nobody had been killed. This I found to be completely unacceptable and I have had no other option than taking this matter further again giving how significantly worse the situation has become. To ignore it, and literally wait for an accident to happen would be neglectful and irresponisble. I do not wish to have it on my conscience that I had not done all that I could to protect the safety of myself, my animals and others should a serious accident occur. I would therefore strongly urge you to challenge the previous response I received and argue that nobody should have to die unnecessarily on this road before action is taken. Cars and Lorries consistently exceed speed limits and do not adhere to legal Highway Code requirements by giving no consideration to riders, pedestrians, animals or other traffic. In the past month one of my horses, whilst being ridden by myself, was hit by a car yet the driver did not stop and just continued to drive. Fortunately my horse was fine but I fell and had significant bruising to my thigh and my GP told me that I was lucky not to have been seriously injured. Within the same week, I also witnessed on one occassion school children almost being knocked over, despite them wearing high visibility jackets and being carefully escorted by their school teacher. These are not an isolated incidents and in fact dangerous driving has now become the norm. Other tenants at my stables have been forced to relocate their animals as they can no longer tolerate the situation. They and myself, sadly now feel unable to take our horses out for a ride and enjoy the beautiful green belt that we are fortunate to have on our doorstep, for fear of being killed. My view is shared by many other residents, land owners and tenants on Carshalton Road and we all feel that we are being left vulnerable and in grave danger. I would be extremely grateful for a response and advice as to how we can resolve this dangerous situation. You and your colleagues would be more than welcome to visit my stables and witness the situation for yourselves should you require it. Looking forward to receiving your response. King regards, Miss Jacqueline Cooksey94 of 100 SignaturesCreated by clare stringer
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Safe Cycling for Kids on Bristol DownsWe are a growing group of families in North Bristol who want our children to grow up as fit, healthy and confident cyclists. At present there are very few opportunities for safe traffic-free cycling in this area; currently we need to load bikes on to cars and drive to places such as Festival Way or Ashton Court. Cycling on the Downs is forbidden due to a bylaw which was made in 1861. The Downs Committee (7 Merchant Venturers and 7 Councillors) has permitted a short stretch of cycle path near the Water Tower. Apart from that, this uniquely beautiful and flat parkland can only be explored on foot or via the road. Temporary closures of Circular Road on the Downs would create a brilliant car-free loop of over 3km, which children of all ages and cycling abilities could enjoy. It would also open up the Downs to people with disabilities who don’t feel safe cycling on the road alongside cars. Our campaign has support from Sustrans, The Bristol Cycling Campaign, CTC Bristol, LifeCycle, Travel West, Bikeability and Bristol Public Health. We want you to help us show the Downs Committee that there are many, many people who feel that the Downs should be a place where children can enjoy cycling in safety. By signing this petition and pledging to join our rides during Bristol Green Capital 2015, you will help to convince the committee that children should indeed have the freedom to ride on the Downs, and that this can be arranged in a way that accommodates the interests of all users of the Downs.4,701 of 5,000 SignaturesCreated by vicki cracknell
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Eurostar-Stop the Sell offEurostar is now beginning to make a profit for the tax payer, just as the East Coast Railway has, these are publicly run services. East Coast Railway makes a large profit, far bigger than when they were run by the three private companies that ruined them and dumped them, as not profitable. This shows privatisation does not work for this industry, Labour should be screaming about this, but is silent, come on Alan Johnson, speak up, you are a man of intelligence and can effect this decision. Eurostar needs you Alan and it needs you, the tax payer, to protect these services, Eurostar and East Coast Railway. In 2011 Eurostar delivered its first profit in its first full year of operation as a standalone company. Continuing this momentum, the business today reports an operating profit of £52.3 million in 2012, up from £25.0 million in 2011. This growth in profitability is driven by an increase in the volume of passengers combined with strong cost management across the business*. http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/about-eurostar/press-office/press-releases/2013/eurostar-delivers-strong-performance-2012#.VD2Vu2clQVY ''The publicly-owned railway company East Coast returned almost £220m to the taxpayer last year, according to its annual results. Directly Operated Railways - which was set up by the government in July 2009 to run the East Coast franchise - has announced a post-tax profit of £6.2m. Its profit before tax and fees to the Department for Transport was £225m, an increase of 8% on the year before. The franchise is due to be re-privatised in March next year.'' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-2912778851 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Penny Scott
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Residents parking scheme in CarnforthOver a number of years the air quality, road safety and quality of life have been negatively effected by the ever increasing traffic flow and visitor numbers to this lovely part of England. Unfortunately, due to Carnforth being on the border of Cumbria and having a relatively small populous, the needs of the residents have been overlooked for a number of years. The need for a residents parking scheme has been proven, but Lancashire County Council constantly push those residents that have been asking for a scheme on a merry-go-round of being fobbed off and quoted that other areas are more important.13 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Simon Withey
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stop selling off our countries assets,i.e,the channel tunnel&east railwaystop all these greedy so&so`s ripping off our country I want you 38 degrees to send this out, I know very little about this gadget i enjoy some of your info.89 of 100 SignaturesCreated by james emmerson dinsdale
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Privatisation of EurostarAfter the debacle of Rail privatisation and the fall in the level of service witnessed over the last decade on our railways, the last thing we need is a purely profit driven ownership of Eurostar looking merely at the short term in order to provide a return at any cost to their investors. This privatisation is purely ideologically driven and takes no consideration of the needs - short or long term - of Eurostar or, especially, it's users.The Governments of France and Belgium are considering increasing their share of the ownership of Eurostar (at British tax-payers expense as the profits will all go to alleviate the tax burden of other countries) whilst ours is so driven by an ideological distaste for any nationally owned service that they will press ahead with privatisation at any cost and regardless of the value of that privatisation to the current owners of the service - you! It must further be asked, can we trust a civil service which oversaw the huge loss to taxpayers through the undervaluation and mismanagement of The Royal Mail and RBS (where even according to the Telegraph taxpayers faced a loss of £1bn and £10bn respectively)? Please show Mr Osbourne and the Treasury your dislike of this half-baked plan to rush through privatisation before the next election.117 of 200 SignaturesCreated by Richard Dunning
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No New Arundel BypassAny route of a new road will be hugely damaging to the environment, cutting through farmland and ancient woodland, or damaging Binsted village and part of Walberton. This is countryside that has been labelled too precious to lose by previous government. The road will cause more pollution and it will also cause new congestion - it has been proved that new roads bring more traffic. We believe that local people would prefer the traffic problems here to be solved by other means which are achievable and would provide an acceptable compromise.439 of 500 SignaturesCreated by Isabel Thurston
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Keep motorway rest areas FREE!I recently received a fine for parking in the MOTO services, Knutsford South because I was to exhausted to continue. My fine for sleeping is £100.00 and that sleep probably saved me from having an accident. There were no signs that I noticed and there were no lit signs because it was 12.53 am and pitch black.41 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Robert Broad
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