This decision hasn't been thoroughly thought through and has sparked a mass outcry on any posts advertising this move by Highland Council. Highland Council have slapped a 3% increase on council tax bands A to H and this stealth tax of £30 will affect the worst off who will have to choices, and be left with nowhere to put their garden waste which is currently uplifted. I know an elderly person in our neighbourhood, with no transport but a large garden. Where will he put his grass clippings? He'll be forced to send them to landfill as he can't afford the extra charge! Highland Council also haven't considered the wider community impact with many local people using the bin to remove Council grass clippings, leaves, bushes and branches that would normally be left on the streets of communities. What will the streets look like when this is impemented and people no longer have good will towards the council. This goes further, flytipping will increase as people try to rid themselves of items they previously placed in a bin. Increased landfill charges will soon put a dent in the estimated £660,000 the council set out to make, which is based on 22,000 people taking up this service. Based on social media response, the council may be doing well if they make half this figure. All the old bins will be dumped in neighbourhoods and ultimately end up increasing the space we consume in landfill - there will be little to no other use for the hundreds not required. Should the council change tack in future, what will he financial and impact on our plant to manufacture hundreds of new bins? The service will operate as before, teams visiting each street in diesel operated waste trucks. Instead of making many collections, a few per street if they are lucky? These inefficiencies are a means to an end but to have these vehicles polluting our streets for a few bins is counterproductive to climate change. Each person to opt in will receive a sticker for their bin. The admin associated with this entire idea will be even more of a drain on the already under resourced council. There are many more arguments as to why this is ludicrous, you only need to look at Highland Council social media to see the upset this had caused and the wave of unrest as this charge is lumped on top of the already increasing taxes we pay. My worry is that these charges are the thin end of the wedge. Once people start paying for a brown bin collection, what will be introduced next year to 'balance the books'. Please resist these charges and sign this petition to send a strong message that this is unacceptable and will hit those that can't afford it worst! Everyone deserves a place to live, a tidy green space to enjoy and refuse collections to keep their space and streets tidy.

The ten boroughs now only exist in people's imaginations. Many, especially young people, no longer identify with them but know they "belong" to Greater Manchester. Few people know their local councillors' names or the leaders of their council. People do know Andy Burnham is the mayor and 100 councillors will have a higher profile than the 1000 or so currently across the 10 boroughs. Councils have slashed staff numbers. The number of councillors is now completely out of proportion to council employees. There could be massive cost saving in councillor costs while increasing effectiveness. Manchester Town Hall is being renovated and would provide a suitable chamber for 100 councillors from across the Greater Manchester area.

This will allow people on low in come to change there tax on a car without having to purchase more tax than they need to, as it is if you change your car 2 weeks into the month I.E due to right offs you have to pay for 2 weeks of the month on tax for the new car that you have all ready paid for. By allowing people to change there tax to a different car then they will not be charged for tax that was never needed as they did not have that car at that time.

E-bikes are a hazard and a nuisance, particularly to those who're oblivious to what's going on around them. It's only a matter of time before someone is killed or seriously maimed by these "silent killers". The E-bike riders are generally rude and obnoxious. Walking and cycling in the great outdoors used to be a good way to escape these sorts of people (they're lazy), unfortunately that's no longer the case.

Because it is an insult to the families and the memory of the young victims killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. It would be morally wrong to allow the placing or scattering of this man's ashes on Saddleworth Moor.

(To skip the history of this issue please scroll to **) In 2016 the government passed a bill called the "Investigatory Powers Bill" (now the Investigatory Powers Act). This bill replaced the UK's old RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) from 2000, which referred to the powers the UK police and security services had when it came to collecting, monitoring, intercepting, etc - electronic communications from any UK resident, or person currently in the country. The bill effectively makes it legal for the government to spy on everyone in the country, at their will, as well as conducting mass surveillance of the entire country (which they have renamed to "Bulk Collection", as this tends to make people less concerned.) This bill was hugely opposed by those who knew about it, however it wasn't widely known about due to the government precisely timing when they bought it to parliament to coincide with much bigger issues (such as BREXIT). When this bill officially became law it was referred to in headlines as "The UK now has a surveillance law that is more suited to a dictatorship than a democracy". Now the Conservative party are trying to sneak through an expansion of this bill. When the IPAct was bought into power the Conservatives said on numerous occasions said they would not ban or undermine encryption (by implementing backdoors etc) Theresa May personally said "We believe that encryption is important. It is important that data can be kept safe and secure. We are not proposing in the bill to make any changes in relation to the issue of encryption and the legal position around that. The current legal position in respect of encryption will be repeated in the legislation of the bill". ** However the following has document has made its way into the open (article link on page): https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/04/uk_bulk_surveillance_powers_draft/ Technology and apps like WhatsApp and Signal rely on strong encryption to keep our messages private. Weakening the encryption or inserting backdoors is an enormous risk for the entire UK, as the same encryption that keeps these messages safe, also secures things such as bank transactions, social media login, emails, etc. Theresa May usually refers to her famous "double lock" system. Meaning these kinds of things must be authorised by both the home secretary (for example) and a judge. The problem we have seen with this is that these people are not experts in these fields, so rather than question who, how, what, where, when and why they just rubber stamp it. The USA has a court that their surveillance has to go through. This court has rejected 0.03% of all requests ever made. Companies like Facebook (who own WhatsApp) have previously shown their dedication to keeping their users privacy. For them to disable encryption for the UK means anybody messaging that person is also vulnerable, which could cause WhatsApp the shut down in the UK. They may also refuse the request, which could then lead the Government to ban WhatsApp. Please join with me in getting the government to withdraw these plans, and work with an expert in the field to attempt to come up with an approach that keeps us all secure as well as sparing our privacy. Thank you.

It is important that life and death health situations are not disrupted by cyber attack

This is an issue that I have thought of myself, but it must be seriously considered. For the long term sustainable future of the NHS, the NHS must be more ecologically powered in order to save money & to reduce the NHS's environmental impact.

Service will get worse, Health particularly for children will suffer. The time to stop a disaster is before it happens

The NHS has just fallen victim of an international cyber-attack but what no one is talking about is how this was the consequence of a blatant error: placing our health system in the hands of a self-oriented international corporation. All the tax payers money used to acquire thousands of Windows XP licenses were simply wasted the moment Microsoft decided to discontinue this version of their operating system. The abandonment of support via security updates by Microsoft since April 2014 is at the core of the NHS' exposure to international hackers. Now the NHS, as well as other public services providers, are rushing to update their operating systems. But we cannot let them make the same mistake again. Moreover, newer versions of Windows also require faster machines, dragging the NHS into a huge expenditure which it can clearly not afford. It is time to move to a more reliable and cheaper alternative that is perfectly suitable for the computers the NHS currently has. Linux operating system is more than appropriate for the kind of tasks required, which are mainly office and data-keeping related. There are several UK based firms offering installation and maintenance of Linux operating systems in large scale. Such that as an extra bonus of this migration, our own internal market will be boosted, creating jobs and generating domestic income. More info: NHS left reeling by cyber-attack: ‘We are literally unable to do any x-rays’ https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/13/nhs-cyber-attack-patients-ransomware NHS should have installed crucial computer update ‘months ago’ http://metro.co.uk/2017/05/13/nhs-should-have-installed-crucial-computer-update-months-ago-6634494/ Leaked NSA Malware Is Helping Hijack Computers Around the World https://theintercept.com/2017/05/12/the-nsas-lost-digital-weapon-is-helping-hijack-computers-around-the-world/ 90 per cent of NHS Trusts are still running Windows XP machines http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2479315/90-per-cent-of-nhs-trusts-are-still-running-windows-xp-machines Credit for the image: Thinkstock/Linux

The election represents a significant political crossroads for the UK.

The new laws will mean that the use of E-cigarettes will become more expensive which, in turn, could mean that many users of E-cigs will return to cigarettes. This is an awful example shown by the government as it is indirectly promoting smoking. Especially when smoking is far worse for you and have thousands of cancer emitting chemicals, whereas E-cig liquids have 4 ingredients which is proven to be a far healthier alternative.