People are homeless for a wide range of reasons; many are vulnerable, experiencing mental illness or the impact of traumatic life events and most have no financial security. Any one of us with the right combination of unfortunate circumstances could find ourselves in a position of being homeless and of needing to resort to asking passersby for money or food. Please encourage our local Northamptonshire councils to find more effective and compassionate ways of dealing with the issues related to begging than imposing fines that homeless people are unlikely to be able to pay. This campaign is based on this information from Northampton council's website: http://www.northampton.gov.uk/downloads/file/9044/draft-public-spaces-protection-order If you have anything that suggests that Northampton Council are no longer planning to fine people for begging then we'd love to hear more from you, drop us an email at [email protected]

After signing this petition please formally object via http://didcot.space (will redirect you to the Garden Town plan page) or send an email to [email protected] Comments can be as short or long as you like - just make it clear you object to building on Ladygrove Park. Consultation on these proposals has been extended to 28th February, so please do it now. Thank you! There are plans for 15,000 new houses to be built in Didcot as part of the "Didcot Garden Town" project. This is more than those planned for Bicester Garden Town, recently described as a "dog's breakfast" with ecologically important flower rich meadows being lost to housing. Proposals for Didcot have been announced that are WORSE than first feared. They include building technical office space and accommodation over roughly half of the Ladygrove recreation ground and play park. The remnants would be developed such that there would be no substantial level open green space for casual sports or recreation. A new road cutting across the play park and flats on the play park, opposite the Willowbrook and behind the football club with no additional parking serve to top of this awful proposal. The current morning congestion around the primary school would be intolerable. Our facilities, green spaces and paths integral to our local parkrun are threatened. You can see the briefings here : https://didcotgardentown.commonplace.is/news/2017/01/20/stakeholder-representative-group-presentation-19-january-2017 Campaigners in Bicester have been to court twice to try to protect their environment. If we are to protect our green spaces and amenities the time to act is now, by obtaining a simple undertaking from the project team before their plans are fully formed. If you want to save them please sign this petition and share it with your friends. Thank you! (You can see the Ladygrove areas initially marked out for development on the final pages of these two official downloads published by the Didcot Garden Town planners http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/node/18434 and this http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/node/18447 )

This is important because a 74 year old gentleman was left to rot and decompose in a tent, on the bank of the River Severn in Worcester over the summer of 2016. Cardon Banfield came over with the Windrush community and was let down by the state in his final days. In a report by Worcester City Council, it was found that lessons can be learned from the death of Cardon. Councillor Lynn Denham stated that we should learn these lessons - and the undersigned believe we can only do that with a Safeguarding Adults Review. The Worcester City Council-funded CCP service (which the taxpayer pays £240,000 a year for) should have found Cardon's body. Help get Justice for Cardon, hold the right people accountable and stop another tent death happening on our streets again.

We are concerned about the following aspects outlined in the plan. • The reduction of A&E Departments from three to two. Wherever this closure maybe we believe that it will simply put further pressure on A&E departments in other parts of the county. • Closure of community hospital beds. • The further privatisation and fragmentation of NHS services within the country. • Closure of hospital departments putting further pressure on other services • The redeployment of staff which poses a risk to nurses and other health care professionals pay and terms and conditions. We believe that these proposals pose a direct threat to NHS services within the County and therefore we stand united in our opposition to these proposals. Please sign our petition to oppose these proposals and to save our NHS

In a recent article by GScene Magasine, it was advised that Brighton based HIV charity The Sussex Beacon faces the prospect of closing services, including its ten bed inpatient unit, following a reduction in funding it receives from the NHS. The Sussex Beacon provides specialist support and care to people living with HIV through inpatient and outpatient services. It helps hundreds of people living with HIV each year and was rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission in September. Changes to local commissioning arrangements have led to a reduction in funding from some statutory funders. The Sussex Beacon has already lost funding with further cuts likely to follow in the near future. The charity costs over £2 million a year to run and the Charity Trustees say they cannot continue to absorb these cuts. While many people living with HIV are now able to live long and healthy lives, there are still many who need specialist services. Last year The Sussex Beacon’s inpatient unit had 233 admissions and was full for the majority of the year. It provided over 2,000 bed nights, relieving pressure on both health and social care services in Sussex. Please use #SaveTheSussexBeacon when sharing to help build momentum and to let the Sussex Beacon staff see what you are doing to help

Kinship carers are family members (aunts, uncles and grandparents etc) that take care of children whose parents, can no longer take care of their children. This may be due to the parents having drug or alcohol dependencies, being abusive or otherwise unable to cope with parenting. Kinship carers are often the preferred choice by social services when they need to re-home a child because it maintains the children's connections with their families. However kinship careers and the children they look after receive very little or none of the support given to those in foster homes or care. Kinship carers alter their own lives to care for family members children and this is a sacrifice that needs acknowledgement. I know first hand the struggles associated with kinship care and many families including my own are left with little or no support. We are driven by love for the children and a huge commitment to improve an often poor early life. due to legislation children that are not "looked after" by local authority are not able to easily access support services and this needs to change. Our children have suffered the same emotional heartache and turmoil as any other child in care. They need to be counted and acknowledged too.

Since this Government was first elected in 2010 they have had an ideological agenda to attack the most vulnerable in society, The cuts to social care being one of them. Norfolk county council are proposing to make cuts to the sheltered housing warden service to balance their books in the coming year. The people who use this service are some of the most vulnerable in the county, It is absolutely vital in keeping these extremely vulnerable people in a safe environment and helping them lead more fuller, happier lives. The county council believe this will save money but it will not. In fact - A warden can keep 60 residents in a safe environment for 12 months for the same cost of keeping 1 resident in a larger home and still isolated. A warden costs around £450 a week servicing up to 60 residents. The cost of just one person going into a care home is around £600 per week. We urge the County Council to take in to account the social and economic benefits that this service provides and reconsider these proposed cuts.

Many people over 65 are members of the 'baby boomer' generation retired with good occupational pensions as well as the state pension, often living in warm comfortable houses which they bought on mortgages much cheaper than they are now. They don't need the £100 to keep warm but there are others less fortunate and often much younger who can't even afford to rent a property never mind own one and some of them are sleeping on the streets in the winter cold. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/07/one-in-six-pensioners-is-a-millionaire-official-figures-show/ Many retired people, like me, send the money to charity but others never get round to doing it. Many others will just feed it into their frivolous lifestyle without a thought about how it could do more good elsewhere. Perhaps if they were given the option by the DWP to send it to a good cause instead much more of this money could be sent where it could really make a difference. Nudge Theory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudge_theory) now being used by various government departments could possibly feed millions in this direction. Even better, since if you give to charity yourself with Gift Aid the government adds another 20%, perhaps they should send £120 for each person who selects the option. Obviously it will take some time for the government to set this up if we do persuade them; certainly not before the middle of next year. So if you are reading this and you are a pensioner like me who can easily do without the payment, and you haven't already sent it to a good cause, maybe you could send it to a deserving charity too?

An open letter from an 87-year-old lady who uses the centre: Dear people of Bicester, I've lived in Bicester for 50 years. My husband passed away 15 yrs ago. I have no family left and my mobility is not what it used to be. I attend the Bicester Health and wellbeing centre located near the garth park two days a week. This place is my only lifeline. I get to see friends and I get looked after so well that I really don't know where I would be without the place. Oxfordshire County Council are proposing to close this centre and others throughout Oxfordshire! What will I do? I will be stuck looking at four walls every day with no human contact. Who will prepare me a cooked meal, help me with my medications and just check my general health. I'm so upset that this is happening. I won't see my friends again. I will be all alone all day every day. Me and my husband have worked hard all our lives, paid our taxes and this is how vulnerable people are being treated. You are all younger and we need you to fight for us as no one will otherwise. Please think of your elderly relatives and think what would they do if they didn't have you? I don't like being alone and it scares me to think this is now my future, being alone and vulnerable. Please help us in this fight to save the Bicester Wellbeing Health and Wellbeing centre. You or your relatives might need them one day!

28000 low income families have been underpaid in tax credits from 2011-2014. HMRC are refusing to pay monies owed. Caring for a disabled child is a full time job and often compels parents to give up work. Money and time are tight and checking the Government is paying what you are owed is one task too many. The denial of these tax credits has already caused great hardship. To receive it now would make an incredible difference to challenged lives.

I care for my elderly father on a full-time basis, the living wage is £7.20 an hour, but the government only pays me an allowance of £62.10 a week for over 35 hours work. That works out as less than £2 an hour. It's really hard to survive on this paltry amount. I’ve worked all my life, but unfortunately last November I had to stop work to care for my 83-year-old father. I care for my father for over 35 hours a week. It’s extremely hard going as I have to do everything for him, his shopping, washing his clothes, giving him his medication and taking him to hospital. As a carer you end up entirely devoting your time to someone else and are all trying our hardest for a paltry - 62.10 a week. The government have introduced a 'living wage' of £7.20 an hour, I want this to be extended to carers so people are paid fairly for the care work they do.

The Dover Soup Kitchen was founded by Steph Perrow in 1991, and their mission statement is that it is a resource for the homeless, vulnerable, elderly, lonely, and the needy. It provides free meals, hot drinks, clothes and bedding, and creates a sense of belonging and community. This soup kitchen helps many people every day without judgement or stigma it is a safe haven for many of the vulnerable in our town. It would be tragic if Dover lost this precious service especially in this age of austerity where more and more people are struggling, more people are losing their homes and many end up on the streets through no fault of their own. Please pledge your name to this petition so we can let DDC know that we will not stand for their actions and let's fight for those vulnerable people who cannot always make their voices heard. Thank you for reading.