My name is Gaia the Garbage. I help run Ecologisers, a Young People's Anti-litter Campaign. For a 2 minute fun-video that gives the whole picture, please visit https://vimeo.com/233979354 We have 4 creative projects we're forwarding and have taken into schools, and universities through current teacher-training routes. These are: Alternative Santa, LItter Goes LIterary, the Children's Humorously Captioned Photography Competition and the writing of EcoSongs. I've written 45 EcoSongs. Put upbeat celebratory eco-lyrics to famous out-of-copyright tunes. This project and others like it are important because the way we tackle problems, including global problems, is not solution-oriented. It's quick-fix or commerically-led. Though we have been running this campaign for 4 years we have funded it ourselves as litter is seen as the pariah of the enivronmental movement. Numerous applications for funding we have made have failed. At Ecologisers we want to make litter 'sexy'!!

Globally, more than 800 investors with combined assets of $6 trillion USD have already made commitments to divest from fossil fuels. We have the opportunity for Highland to be the first Local Authority in Scotland to divest from fossil fuels! Six other UK Local Government pension funds have already done so. By investing in fossil fuel extraction, Highland Council are profiting from climate change. As public bodies, local governments have a responsibility to work for the public good; they shouldn’t be financially and politically supporting the most destructive industry on the planet. Fossil fuel investments undermine Highland Council’s own climate change strategies, as well as our national and international commitments. £2.3 million of the Highland Council's Pension Fund is invested in BHP Billiton, the 12th largest extractor of coal in the world. They are currently mining in the centre of the Borneo rainforest and facing prosecution over Brazil's worst ever environmental disaster. They also have £12.6 million invested in Shell, who have paid millions of dollars in fines over their oil operations in Nigeria, are threatening to drill in the Arctic and are involved in shale gas fracking in the US (a process banned in Scotland). What could change look like? We are in the midst of a housing crisis, youth unemployment is high and inequality is rising. New technologies like electric cars, wave power and floating wind can bring green jobs to our communities, whilst investment in green housing and insulation could house millions and cut fuel poverty. Council pension funds can back this change by shunning fossil fuels and investing locally in green jobs, social housing and renewable energy. By divesting from fossil fuels, Highland Council, together with other public and financial institutions, can collectively help fund a more sustainable future for the people of Highland and around the world. Please sign and share!

We as a community need to stand together to make this change for our children and the community. Please sign up and have your say, we need your backing!!!

The rollout of Benefit changes is coming to Tendring soon. We have seen the chaos and consequences of benefit arrears in other areas that have rolled out and wish to do all we can to alleviate the problems in Tendring

This will cost local Lancashire Health Trusts £2.08mil for a nominal saving. It is important to reduce outsourcing because private providers owe a duty to their shareholders, as well as patients and may therefore seek to hide behind principles of ’commercial confidentiality’. Private providers are not subject to the Freedom of Information law in the same way that NHS organisations are

Thanks to the Government's 'Right to Buy' Policy, local government are forced to offer Social Housing at heavily discounted prices - at approximately up to 70% of value - to elderly, disabled and vulnerable residents in Independent Living Accommodation; thus reducing the housing stock in Social Housing overall. Affordable Housing is only offered at 20% of value which most cannot afford. If residents cannot get social housing, either through an association or the council, they are forced into the more expensive - ON AVERAGE 4 TIMES AS MORE - private renting. For example: In the last six months, 130 Independent Living Accommodation Sites have been lost, never to replaced, amounting to 2% of the current total Social Housing within the Stroud Area alone; an issue that is being replicated across the United Kingdom.

Prison leaders, from local to national, presided over an “abject failure” to provide a safe, decent and purposeful regime at HMP Liverpool, according to Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. In a report outlining jail conditions that experienced inspectors regarded as the worst they could remember, Mr Clarke said it was “hard to understand how the leadership of the prison could have allowed the situation to deteriorate to this extent.” Inspectors found squalid living conditions, with dirt, litter, rats and cockroaches, and an environment in which drugs were easily available and violence had increased. Mr Clarke added: “While much of what we found was clearly the responsibility of local prison managers, there had been a broader organisational failure. We saw clear evidence that local prison managers had sought help from regional and national management to improve conditions they knew to be unacceptable long before our arrival, but the resulting support was inadequate and had made little impact on outcomes for prisoners.” HMP Liverpool is a local category B prison serving the Merseyside area. A traditional local jail with “a very strong sense of local identity”, it held 1,115 men at the time of the unannounced inspection in September 2017. It was last inspected in May 2015. Since then, the prison had deteriorated in terms of respect and purposeful activity and these elements were poor, the lowest possible assessment, in 2017. Safety and resettlement work, the two other key inspection tests, were judged as ‘not sufficiently good.’ However, Mr Clarke said, the bare statistics “do not adequately describe the abject failure of HMP Liverpool to offer a safe, decent and purposeful environment.” He identified key issues: Violence of all kinds had increased. Over a third of prisoners felt unsafe at the time of the inspection, and 71% felt unsafe at some time. Nearly two-thirds of prisoners said it was easy or very easy to obtain drugs. Drones carrying drugs and other illicit items were a substantial problem. Staff had recovered 32 drones in the six months before the inspection, more than one a week. Half of the prisoners were locked in their cells during the working day. There were also significant failings in the leadership and management of activities and in health care. There was a backlog of some 2,000 maintenance tasks and it was clear that facilities management at the prison “was in a parlous state.” Mr Clarke added: “The inspection team was highly experienced and could not recall having seen worse living conditions than those at HMP Liverpool. “Many cells were not fit to be used and should have been decommissioned. Some had emergency call bells that were not working but were nevertheless still occupied, presenting an obvious danger to prisoners. There were hundreds of unrepaired broken windows, with jagged glass left in the frames. Many lavatories were filthy, blocked or leaking. There were infestations of cockroaches in some areas, broken furniture, graffiti, damp and dirt. “I saw piles of rubbish that had clearly been there for a long time, and in which inspectors reported seeing rats on a regular basis. I was told by a senior member of staff that it had not been cleared by prisoners employed as cleaning orderlies because it presented a health and safety risk. It was so bad that external contractors were to be brought in to deal with it. In other words, this part of the jail had become so dirty, infested and hazardous to health that it could not be cleaned.” Mr Clarke was particularly troubled by the case of one vulnerable man with complex mental health needs being held in a cell that had no furniture other than a bed. “The windows of both the cell and the toilet recess were broken, the light fitting in his toilet was broken with wires exposed, the lavatory was filthy and appeared to be blocked, his sink was leaking and the cell was dark and damp. “Extraordinarily, this man had apparently been held in this condition for some weeks…It should not have needed my personal intervention for this man to be moved from such appalling conditions.” Inspectors could see “no credible plan” to address these basic problems. Mr Clarke said: “Although there are several change projects underway at the prison, none of these will address the basic failings that were so painfully obvious at HMP Liverpool. I was particularly concerned that there did not appear to be effective leadership or sufficiently rigorous external oversight to drive the prison forward in a meaningful way. This report makes it crystal clear that leaders at all levels, both within the prison and beyond, had presided over the failure to address the concerns raised at the last inspection.” Michael Spurr, Chief Executive of Her Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service, said: “The conditions which Inspectors found at Liverpool were unacceptable and effective measures should have been taken to deal with the issues at a much earlier stage. We are committed to fixing this, have already made changes where we can, and have today published a comprehensive action plan to address the Chief Inspector’s concerns.Following the Inspection we took immediate action to rectify the situation. A new Governor has been appointed and a strengthened management team is in place; capacity has been reduced by 172 places; over 700 prisoners now have a named Prison Officer as their ‘Key Worker’; cleanliness has been improved and the maintenance backlog has been almost halved. Liverpool has a dedicated staff who are committed to providing a safe and decent environment for prisoners. The Governor will get the support she needs to deliver the action plan and make the changes necessary to substantially improve the performance and conditions at the prison.”

Rents are on the increase, that is a fact. Homelessness and debt are too, also a fact. People are finding it harder and harder to meet the demands of paying rent that is astronomical in proportion to what is being paid in salaries. A recent study shows 37% of a monthly income goes on rent - that's before any other expenses are even calculated. Personally in my situation, i know its more like 60% that goes on my rent and i know many others are in the same boat. As the rent goes up, people can't pay and end up in personal debt, landlords end up with debt and rent goes up further to prevent debt in the future for the next tenant. I urge the Minister and parliament to consider introducing a rent controls act to stop this vicious circle and protect both the most vulnerable and the providers of housing at the same time.

Remote villages need access to frequent reliable transport links to towns. Anyone who does not drives will be isolated and cut off from doing normal things in society

Rough sleepers deserve justice and not enough help is given by local councils some one needs to be held responsible for deaths on our streets if rough sleepers are neglected by councils .

Homelessness is an issue that can affect any one of us. It is getting worse and more needs to be done both nationally and locally. However, people living on the streets deserve to be treated with compassion, understanding and empathy and they most certainly DO NOT deserve to be demonised, vilified, persecuted or mistreated.

The Public purse has never been so strained with fewer persons or businesses paying in due to Tax avoidance avoidance , loopholes & policy , yet demand remains high in ever decreasing Public Services. High profile failures like these should not fall on the Public Purse but place the loss with the Banks & Creditors whose lack of financial prudence could well encouraged irresponsible borrowing & ultimate failure when calling for the companies liquidation.