Approx. £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-6681476

Our 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".

We 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.

Eurostar 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-29127788

After 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.

Any 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.

Using a non-standard keyboard only serves to cause frustration to users, longer waiting times for a machine to be free, extra stress and missed trains

Long term exposure to road pollutants can trigger hospital admissions or deaths for people with heart or lung disease. It is estimated that air pollution is responsible for 29,000 deaths per year in the UK (COMEAP 2010). To put this into context, this is 3 times the number of deaths attributable to alcohol and 16 times that caused by road traffic accidents. Air pollution is also linked to many life limiting conditions, child development and reduces life expectancy by around six months, worth £16 billion a year. Ill health has a resultant burden on our society and our NHS. Further fines and court costs, paid for by the taxpayer, will be incurred as the UK fails to meet EU air quality targets. We the undersigned are of the opinion that as a matter of urgency the government needs to sanction a range of measures to reduce air pollution and its effect on health. These include a national framework for low emission zones, infrastructure and incentives for active travel, road user charging and discouragement of biomass burning and diesel vehicles.

Last week someone was taken to hospital after being hit by a car close to the Victoria Arms pub – just yards from where the crossing is supposed to be. The council first said the crossing would be "at least designed" by April 2012 and then they said it would be in place by the end of last year. Now they're saying it will be 6-8 weeks, but haven't appointed a contractor or set a start date. The money is there and ready to pay for the crossing. It's time for the council to stop promising things and start building. More info here: http://www.brentwoodgazette.co.uk/promised-paid-crossing/story-22967467-detail/story.html

Bus services remain of vital importance to many people living in rural areas, people who are no longer able to drive, children going to school, people travelling to work. The maintenance of good public transport networks is important in reducing carbon admissions and relieving congestion on the roads. The County Council's proposals would radically impact on people's lives, eliminating evening services in all but the larger towns and cutting services in some rural areas from daily to twice weekly.

The Peak District National Park is reputed to be the 2nd most visited national park in the world and when you visit this area it’s not hard to understand why, the area is truly breath-taking and living in the Peak District is a real privilege. Sadly not everyone who comes to the Peak District wants to enjoy the peace and serenity that the area offers. The area is under continuous assault by off road enthusiasts who come in significant numbers to rally up and down lanes and bridal ways for recreational sport, these off roaders have learned that if a footpath has ever been used by a horse and cart since the early 18oos they can apply to have the use changed from a footpath to a byway or even worse a Byway Open to All Traffic. To upgrade existing footpaths to byways of any designation blurs the distinction of what is permissible. Even the description of a route which allows for ‘limited use’ by motorised vehicles clouds the issue and implies some right of vehicular access. As we have seen in many cases across the national park – abuse of restricted byways by those seeking out green lanes to drive across, is a common fact. There is no meaningful policing of these routes as the police do not view such transgressions as a priority. This is detrimental to the fabric and essence of the national park and as the authorities have no power to overrule these decisions the applications virtually always get approval as the law is on the side of the applicant. It is an antiquated law that needs to change as a matter of urgency. At the very least - any national park should have special provisions to overrule decisions which will affect these beautiful areas, currently they do not have this power. We must make sure that these areas are left as we found them for future generations to enjoy in the same way, but once these paths are opened up to broader definitions of traffic, the effects and devastation are substantial. I will list a few below: 1. Erosion rapidly sets in and the ground is constantly churned up by powerful motorbikes, 4x4s, – causing once minimal footpaths to become broad lanes 2. The native wildlife and flora habitats are destroyed (some of these are rare or protected species) 3. Peat bog lands are reduced to slurry 4. Some off roaders not content with the path they have, widen their riding area in search of greater challenges, creating more damage 5. Local residents and tourists suffer as a result of the noise these machines bring to the area 6. Green lane traffic poses a danger to walkers and visitors due to the speed and aggression that some apply whilst in the area 7. Once the area is sufficiently churned up, the ground becomes unstable and when the heavy rains of winter start, the degrading effect happens much faster and the lands begins to wash away 8. Neither environmental impact nor local opposition are taken into consideration on decisions to redefine footpaths within the national park because the authorities are simply complying with the letter of the law 9. The number of routes designated as simple, peaceful footpaths within the national park reduces as the definitions are upgraded to encourage more forms of transport. The argument against this is huge and a book could be written about the devastating impact to the area, obviously we can’t do this here and indeed the applicants for this will have their own arguments about why they should have access to the land. Our decision to fight this is not because we don’t like the people who carry out this sport it’s because we value our countryside as it should be. We will add that a large number of disused quarries and certain farmlands charge a small fee for riders to enjoy the ultimate off road experience in purpose-made environments so why on earth would you want to ruin nature at its very best Please support and share with your friends

The proposed cuts to bus services would severely restrict people's ability for travel: • to and from work • visiting friends and relatives • To access education and training • access to hospitals, doctors, dentists and other medical services • access to leisure activities including town and countryside locations Fewer buses will mean more traffic congestion and delays which affects all of us.