Due to the new sugar tax, the government is set to make £250 million a year. The very most female sanitary products could make from VAT is £130 million a year, and that's if every woman in the UK needed them, which clearly isn't possible, but it shows the maximum amount they could possibly make. It's clear sugar tax will make up this difference and making money wasn't even its primary reason for it being implemented. It's obvious female sanitary products are not a luxury item, and women all over the globe need them. Being charged VAT on them is simply ludicrous. There is simply no excuse now for VAT being on female sanitary products anymore even at a reduced rate. Periods aren't a choice, and female sanitary products are necessary to deal with it. Women shouldn't be charged on a product they NEED - not WANT, NEED. It doesn't make sense, its obvious it doesn't make sense and now it doesn't make sense financially either.

The streets and countryside are littered with discarded plastic wrappings which are not only an eyesore, but are hazardous to wildlife, and also slowly break down into micro-particles which eventually find their way into our food chain

When it comes to re-cycling, Gedling Borough Council rates a poor 260th out of 350 English local authorities. Gedling re-cycles only 36.7% of its domestic waste compared to the national average of 45.2%. Gedling’s announcement that it intends to be a ‘Plastic Clever Council’ is welcome but has to be seen in the context of its recent closure of 6 local ‘bring’ recycling sites and the earlier cancellation of its commercial recycling collection service.

There are millions upon millions of nonrefillable plastic pens which cannot be recycled as they have metal components thrown away every day which is adding to the plastic wasteland and polluting the environment.

Evidence (from Institute for Government, British Ports Association, Ports of Dover and Calais, Eurotunnel, Freight Trade Association, Imperial College) shows that M20 and M2 and surrounding roads are likely to become slow traffic jams, if, a) the UK government takes us out of the Customs Union and the Single market, b) we don’t get a ‘no-tariff deal’, and consequently, DOVER and KENT are badly affected by the new border checks that follow. New 2018 evidence is even clearer of how unprepared we are. However we each voted in 2016, we cannot allow our journeys to work, school or health care appointments to be subject to gridlock, that will also affect emergency vehicles and tourists across the channel wanting to visit White Cliffs Country. Delays in the delivery of perishable food could cause ‘stockouts’ in supermarkets, a lack of pickers means crops are being wasted. As a result, food prices will rise, making life yet harsher for the most deprived. Computerised checks don't exist and to introduce them could take 5 years or more. The road infrastructure in East Kent needs to be extensively up-dated, in a SUSTAINABLE manner, if it is to cope. Contraflow is not a solution. We call on the UK government, to agree a ‘no-tariff deal’, to provide decisions and funding for Border Force to prepare adequately for change. We call on Kent County Council, to hold public consultations before February 2019, about the infrastructure needed. We call on all Kent MPs to vote this summer for a ‘no-tariff deal’ that will start to reduce the Kent traffic chaos we are told to expect.

This is important because innocent animals are being tested on for human benefits, We must find a different way to test

A Tight Spot The big news this week on the BBC news channel, is that Meghan Markle has started wearing tights to prepare for joining the royal family, who don’t go bare legged, for unexplained reasons of protocol. This reminds me of having to wear tights as part of my school uniform. Never mind the gender pay gap I was a child and had no income, yet I was obliged to buy a product that had built in obsolesces. My tights didn’t last long before they laddered, especially on splintery school chairs and under desks where gum had been secreted. Nail varnish only halted a ladder for so long. I was lucky if I could wear a pair of tights more than five times before throwing them out. That’s a total of a week’s wear per pair. In today’s prices Marks and Spencer sell three pairs of thick black tights for £5. There are about 40 weeks of term time in the school year, and no one wears socks in summer, or those sheer tights that tear when you are taking them out of the packet, so I spent £66 on tights each year. Or rather my parents spent £66 on tights per daughter per school year, and I have two sisters, so my parents were spending £200 per year on tights. They might have done this buy giving their daughters pocket money and hoping we learnt budgeting skills, but there was no way of saving or scheming that avoided the need for their daughters to buy 40 pairs of tights each. According to government statistics, in Britain today there are 1,564,819 girls of secondary school age in state schools, and many will attend schools where trousers are not part of the uniform for girls. So at the end of each school year British school girls have spent about £104,321,267 on 62,592,760 pairs of tights all of which are slowly decomposing on landfill sites. And I mean slowly, tights have the wondrous ability to ladder like greased lightening and decompose at a snails pace. It strikes me that this is not a great use of the earth’s resources and is good neither for the environment or the wealth of Britain’s school girls and their parents. I never liked wearing tights. I didn’t like that they failed to keep me warm in winter, and were sweaty all year round, and sweaty means fungal infections. So I say that protocol needs to move in the other direction. Wearing tights does not equate with decency. I am proud not to be royal and bare legs are fine by me. I just wish the people who design school uniform weren’t influenced by the royal family as much as they seem to be. There are better thing that Britain’s school, girls could buy with £104,321,267. Heck if all girls could wear trousers to school up-skirting and environmental disaster would both suffer a body blow. Others have campaigned on the cost of tampons for school girls, I say there’s more work for feminists to do. Ask Damian Hinds to make wearing trousers and option for all Britain’s school girls.

It is important so I don't die of cancer .

Leahurst Road Preschool is largely funded by charitable donations, so the improvements needed cannot happen without support from external funding, such as the Local Improvement Scheme. The funds applied for were in part to pay for access to speech therapy within the preschool setting. For some children this is vital developmental support to ensure a confident and worry-free start to school. A separate application was made for a covered area outside to enable our children to play and learn outside in all weather. Being outdoors promotes a healthy and active lifestyle, and exposes the children to nature and the world around them. Many children learn best through active movement, but this is limited in the winter months particularly without access to a covered play area.

Glasgow residents and visitors have been delighted to see the beautiful 1842 arch revealed in all its glory after the recent demolition of the 1970s Station facade. We'd like to see the arch preserved in the proposed design.

No train departure from King's Lynn prior to 07:15am will have any on-board host presence. Trains departing prior to this are the busiest trains of the morning. Two thirds of the stations up to Cambridge are rural, un-staffed sites and quite often machines at these stations are unreliable and out of service. The revenue protection role was amended to the title of passenger host and by definition the role is predominantly customer service focussed, supporting vulnerable and elderly passengers in addition to providing safety and security.

This is important because not enough seems to be being done to solve the issues of homelessness. In fact, people in Windsor seem to be being persecuted for their lack of ownership of property. Our national figure-head and her family should support any efforts to support the most vulnerable in our society.