The beach was for many years, a very popular area for tourists and locals alike. In recent years, the groynes, believed to help retain the sand have fallen into disrepair. This has allowed the sand to migrate from the north side of the beach, leaving only rocks and exposed sewage pipework in its place. We desperately need the groyne repaired, the beach cleaned up, and a comprehensive study undertaken to ascertain the best way to manage the beach in future. The beach is the heart of our town. Right now it's broken.

All children and old age pensioners should be entitled to a hot meal provided for them by outside caterering companies with no VAT. These types of meals should remain affordable to ensure all children and elderly are not deprived of a healthy hot nutritious meal. The Vat rate currently stands at 20% on such services in comparison to children's clothing and childcare which stands at zero. Schools, nurseries, colleges, day centres etc have been forced to out source food supplies as they can not afford to keep this service in house. The laws involving EHO and new minimum wages alongside growing numbers of children and lack of space to educate them has all contributed to many schools out source where possible. If the food is cooked in house they are VAT exempt but as soon as a private firm is employed VAT is charged. THIS IS UNFAIR! We are putting pressure on schools to keep food in house and as a result they are only able to offer low grade food that does not meat the nutritional guidelines set by the government. By making such food zero rateable we are providing the opportunity for every child and elderly person to receive an affordable hot nutritious meal. Please support our campaign we believe that one meal a day is not too much to ask for.

MCCH Aspirations helps at least 10 citizens of Shepway per day who are recovering from mental health issues, back into work and training. For many this is a life line, providing support in their darkest hour to gain hope to be a contributing member of society once again. They get results too.

Winchester desperately needs new and improved sports and leisure facilities. Highcliffe is a great community and we agree that the space at Bar End that has been identified as the preferred option by Winchester City Council is the right location. It would be of phenomenal benefit to have these facilities in our neighbourhood. As local residents we want the Council to know that we welcome the plans to bring the new Centre to Bar End.

Chancellor George Osborne is committed to cutting a further 100,000 Civil Service jobs by 2020 and shrinking the entire Government Estate by 75% before 2023. Government services that the public rely on are being decimated as a result of job cuts. Examples from the Passport Office, HMCTS, Land Registry, HMRC, DWP and elsewhere show that cuts in the Civil Service are having a negative impact on service users. Communities are being cut-off from local services. The Civil Service is near to breaking point, the digital technology replacing local services untested and unstable making the planned cuts unsustainable. In Stoke-on-Trent the HMRC have announced that Blackburn House tax office will close by or before 2020 with the loss of between 250-300 jobs to the local economy. Locally DWP has lost around a third of its workforce in the area since 2010 to the detriment of service delivery and the welfare of its remaining workforce. The impact of the loss of this significant number of jobs to the local economy and labour market cannot be underestimated. There is no clear evidence that growth in private sector jobs within the area will replace these jobs. We call on the Government to halt the cuts to Civil Service jobs in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire and invest in Central Government services within the region.

In March we have Mother`s Day, June we see Father`s Day, then there`s Grand Parent`s Day, Armed Forces Day, Merchant Navy Day and everything else`s day, but where`s CARER`S DAY ? Carers don`t get the recognition they deserve, so by making a National day specifically for carers will highlight the importance of their role in society !!

Because businesses that make large profits from the UK market, such as Cadbury, can and should be paying their fair share of taxes. Failing to do so means there is less money to spend on schools, the NHS and other vital public services, which companies rely on to educate and look after their workforce and customers. Cadbury was set up by Quakers and had a long tradition of being a responsible employer that looked after its workforce and made a positive contribution to the communities where its chocolate was manufactured. In 1893, George Cadbury developed the Bournville estate in Birmingham, a model village designed to improve the living conditions of its employees. Easter time, when supermarket shelves are stacked with Cadbury's chocolate, is a good time to remind them of their roots and start putting people ahead of profits. For more information, read: http://ind.pn/1Ode1QJ

The area is needed for physical and mental wellbeing for all the nearby residents, living in high rise and low rise flats. It is our only garden space, used by children and families, dog walkers and wildlife such as foxes, hedgehogs and bats. It is where we see the seasons change and have a moment of peace. Now there is a bike park development happening without local people knowing anything about it. The trees have all been cut down and the grassy area is about to be covered in tarmac. The residents here have not asked for a bike park, nor want it. Consultation was kept to a finely calculated minimum, and an arrangement for just one person on the council to approve planning consent, sealed the deal. Most people had no idea the land was being sold off for £1 pa and no other ideas were discussed, despite surveys having taken place with the residents. The idea for a bike park only came from councillors, who are keen cycling enthusiasts, back in 2012. They then involved other cycling specialist interest groups to set up a charity, called Braidwood Bike Group aka Skelf,, and ‘supported’ them with planning agreements to give away our land for £1 per year. This means that the bike group, Skelf, now own the land and can build a bike park. Whether you support a bike park or not, there was supposed to be a full consultation of local residents to discover ideas for our green space - promised as part of the planning permission presented to the council. The council refuse to do anything despite being presented with evidence of the flawed consultation and so we need your help - please - to make them take notice. Every single person who signs will make a difference. Results from surveys in the area asked for: · benches and picnic tables, · keeping the area as it is as a quiet space · some playpark activities for kids. (NOT a bike park) The trees have all gone already but stage 2 is to cover up the grass areas with tarmac bike paths - please stop this from happening without proper consultation.

At yesterday's Penge Forum meeting which was very well attended, standing room only, residents, trustees and councillor’s agreed to set up an action group led by Cllr Kevin Brooks, to work with and support the Trustees to devise a plan to make the services provided at Melvin Hall financially sustainable. Trustees had given notice of closure to LBB but the portfolio holder for care appeared to have listened to the residents demand to save this vital service in Penge, and he suggested there was a possibility of further rent relief payments and an opportunity of hiring out the halls when not required by Age Concern. This is just a very brief update on our last blog on the possible closure of Melvin Hall. This facility has not yet been saved, there is still a long way to go so work needs to start now to engage with the Trustees and LBB and take this fight forward. Ever since opening at the end of the second world war the Melvin Hall Day Centre’s main aim has been to increase the happiness of the older people of Penge.

With Five Quarters nolonger in operation there is only Cluff Natural Resources with licences who want use the North East as a testbed for undersea coal gasification (UCG), an experimental method of squeezing out the remaining drops of coal. They have received licences to test down the NE coast from Seaham to Hartlepool In Australia linc energy UCG wells were found to leak the same substances to groundwater as can be released by fracking resulting in a 320km zone be made around the plant. There are dangers of blowbacks and explosions. Many test have failed. It has never been used on a commercial basis. The gas produced is syngas or coal gas. It is a mixture of methane (natural gas), carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen. They plan to pump it back into the hole they have made using Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). This is another process that has not been fully tested. Surely it would be better to use renewables and not produce the CO2 in the first place? There is of course the carrot of job creation. Any jobs created by UCG/fracking will be highly specialised. However, if the same amounts of money were to be invested in renewable energies and/or home and public building insulation, which the public have been shown to prefer as the majority of surveys have shown. There would be far more new jobs and far fewer environmental concern's. For more information see Frackfreehartlepool.co.uk

This is important because bullying affects thousands of children across the UK and whether it be in, primary, secondary or college it can affect them greatly. When I was in school I was bullied very severely and it led to many future problems that I then had to deal with myself because of the bullies I had. Bullying can lead to a variety of different problems from anxiety to self harm. I myself when through self harm and am still dealing with it now, three years later, I am so far beating the urge, but the feeling is still there and I hate to think that so many other children are going through the same thing that I went through. There is a statistic that shows 1 in 30 children self harm, which works out 1 child per classroom, which to me is an outrage and if stopping bullying or at least doing more to prevent it, can reduce that statistic, I think a lot more children would be happier. Bullying doesn't necessarily mean a child will self harm, but I feel that if you are bullied is does knock your confidence, no matter who you are, it will knock you. If schools started to put in place real policies and procedures for bullying, like a zero tolerance rule and go through with real consequences then bullying will cut down. When i was in school I would often go to my headteacher with the fact that i was being bullied, and nothing was ever done about it. It got to the point where my mum would call in, but still nothing was done. I feel like this probably happens for a lot of other students, and I think school staff should take it a lot more serious than they do and actually do something when a student comes to them about being bullied. Children are often too scared to go and tell someone, children should be able to feel like they can talk to someone if they're being bullied. I would like to start this campaign against schools dealing with bullying. Eventually i would like to be able to go into schools and do talks about bullying, and maybe ask children to fill in a confidential survey about bullying with questions such as: Have you ever been bullied? Have you ever bullied someone? Has there been any consequences for your bullies? Has there been any consequences because you bullied someone? Has there been any consequences on yourself as a person because you've been bullied? What do you feel when you bully someone? Do you get anything out of it? I could then use these surveys to get statistics to use in other talks and to help show the severity of bullying in certain schools. This is an issue very close to my heart as i don't want children to have to feel the same way that I did when I stepped into school and to have to face the same issues that I did. I know the world is never going to be rid of bullying completely, but if i can at least make a small change in some schools across the UK, it would give me a great sense of achievement and i feel like it would benefit a lot of children.

For some self employment is chosen, for others, in this current climate, it is the only way of having an income, for some adoption is chosen and for others it is their only chance to have a family. An independent report by Julie Deane OBE recommends that self employed people should be given the same rights as those that work for an employer. This has been seen by parliament and so far ignored. I am proud to be self employed, I am also very much looking forward to starting my family however and whenever it happens but I know that without the same support the my employed friends get, we could struggle. This is unfair. The current government is very proud of the rise in self employment. It is one thing that has made the unemployment figures look better over the last few years. The entrepreneurial spirit is something to be proud of. It is time to bring adoption, maternity and paternity pay for self employed people in line with that of employees.