So far a residents association has collected 700 signatures from the immediate area and it is necessary to escalate this to allow a greater response to this ill-advised proposal by a Council that has no interest in listening to its residents.

Engagement with politics happens for the vast majority of people through radio and television, particularly on popular programs such as Question Time. The lack of diversity amongst MP's is a problem for the UK. The lack of diversity in our political programming is a linked problem. Politics should not be the sole domain of well educated, white men. Nor should political commentary, debate and discussion.

Fracking is not the answer to our long term energy crisis. Shale gas is not a low-carbon alternative to other fossil fuels. Advocates say we should exploit shale gas because it has lower carbon emissions than other fossil fuels. However, this doesn't take into account the risk of methane escaping during exploration and production. Methane is a greenhouse gas which is 25% more potent than carbon dioxide. If shale gas is burnt in the UK, it will increase the UK’s carbon emissions, increasing the likelihood of dangerous Climate Change. As a nation, France has completely banned it. Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside. Each gas well requires: An average of 400 tanker trucks to carry water and supplies to and from the site. It takes 1-8 million gallons of water to complete each fracturing job. The water brought in is mixed with sand and chemicals to create fracking fluid. Approximately 40,000 gallons of chemicals are used in fracturing. Up to 600 chemicals are used in fracking fluid, including known carcinogens and toxins such as… Ethylene Glycol, Radium, Methanol, Hydrochloric Acid, Formaldehyde etc etc. The fracking fluid is then pressure injected 10,000 feet into the ground through a drilled pipeline. CONTAMINATION: During this process, methane gas and toxic chemicals leach out from the system and contaminate nearby groundwater. Methane concentrations are 17x higher in drinking-water wells near fracturing sites than in normal wells. Contaminated well water is used for drinking water for nearby cities and towns. There have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination next to areas of gas drilling as well as cases of sensory, respiratory, and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water. Only 30-50% of the fracturing fluid is recovered, the rest of the toxic fluid is left in the ground and is not biodegradable. The waste fluid is left in open air pits to evaporate, releasing harmful VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) into the atmosphere, creating contaminated air, acid rain, and ground level ozone. In the end, hydraulic fracking produces approximately 300,000 barrels of natural gas a day, but at the price of numerous environmental, safety, and health hazards. Greenpeace have set up a website so you can find out if your home is in a fracking area. Just enter your postcode: http://www.wrongmove.org

These centres provide crucial universal and targeted support for parents, carers and young children. This withdrawal of funding will cause irreparable damage to the service, increase risk and vulnerability across the county, and mark a reversal of the 'Every Child Matters' agenda which is striving to eradicate inequality for under 5’s.

This is important because the Coalition Government does not have, indeed has never had, the support of, or mandate from, a majority of the electorate for the policies it is pursuing, Moreover, by its actions and omissions it has become very unpopular with the electorate, to the extent that they now hold it in contempt for its uncaring, unjust and cynical policies, its waste or stripping of national assets, and its undue influence by and preferences for the private sector, instead of serving and safeguarding the public interest, its paramount responsibility.

We have recently seen a huge discrepancy in pay rises between university bosses and university lecturers. For example Dominic Shellard at De Montfort University received an 11.6% rise while his lecturing staff received a 1% rise. Keith Burnett at Sheffield University received a 29% rise while his lecturing staff received a 1% rise. Edward Acton at the University of East Anglia received an increase of 8.6% while his staff received an increase of 1% and John Last at Norwich University of the Arts received a 13% pay increase while his staff received an increase of 1%. The national average for Russel Group Vice Chancellors pay increase is reportedly 7.8% while university lecturers are receiving a 1% rise this year and a real terms pay cut of 13% since 2008. The success of each university is a joint effort of all staff, Lecturers and Vice Chancellors alike, and no singular staff member should take credit for the hard work of everyone involved and be the sole recipient of large pay increases. Two excellent examples of camaraderie are Paul Curran of City University London and Simon Gaskell from of Queen Mary University London, the latter spurned a rise of £50,000, which will now fund five scholarships. Unfortunately voluntary rejections of inappropriate rises in salaries like this are rare. References: Dominic Shellard, http://www.dmu.ac.uk/documents/about-dmu-documents/board-of-governors/dmu-annual-accounts-2012-2013.pdf Keith Burnett, http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/fury-at-105000-pay-rise-for-sheffield-university-boss-sir-keith-burnett-after-he-refused-to-raise-employees-salaries-to-the-living-wage-9084027.html Edward Acton and John Last http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/inflation_busting_pay_rises_for_bosses_of_university_of_east_anglia_and_norwich_university_of_the_arts_1_3195023 Paul Curran & Simon Gaskell http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/vice-chancellors-reject-pay-rise/2009824.article

In March 2013 in the face of a great deal of opposition from local residents the London Borough of Enfield agreed to allow L&Q Property developers to build 231 dwellings on a heritage site in Cockfosters, North London. This site is 10 acres of Ancient Woodland containing Ancient Oaks and other trees hundreds of years old. It is also home to two European protected species, 6 species of bats and great crested newts. Other animals including badgers and foxes also make their home here. There are stag beetles, hedgehogs, water fowl, butterflies (one of which is on the endangered list), there is protected flora. There are two ponds, both of which are mentioned in the Domesday Book, and a Roman well. The planning consultation was flawed but we did not have the money to take on such large corporations in the High Court. Now, despite conditions being placed on the developer, they are already felling trees and planning demolition of the existing buildings next week. Natural England placed a condition on them when they granted the licenses for the bats and newts that NO work could be undertaken until a rigorous search of the site was undertaken between March and May. The developer and Enfield Council are clearly circumnavigating this condition and doing as they please. Enfield Council and Natural England MUST enforce these conditions.

With rising sea levels and climate change (whatever the cause of that change) the problem of flooding is not going to get better, it will only get worse. Everyone, especially the Government, needs to be better educated about the management of our water courses, or hydrology, in order to make informed, intelligent choices about where we focus our limited financial resources. Flooding caused devastation to people, our economy and our environment. We must act now to change Government spending habits which currently serve to increase flooding rather than decrease it. I refer people to the well referenced article in the Guardian as a starting point: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/flooding-public-spending-britain-europe-policies-homes Follow the references for more details.

Under plans from NHS England, it is intended to close three quarters of UK's specialist brain cancer centres who provide targeted radiotherapy treatment. This goes against everything that the NHS is supposed to stand for, meaning that possibly many additional miles will be travelled to one of the remaining few centres left. This is a disaster for patients and families alike and lead to totally unnecessary loss of life. Doctors, patients and families alike are furious as NHS England is rejecting doctors advice and is condemning patients to invasive brain surgery or total brain radiotherapy, whilst not using available resources sensibly. That NHS supposed transparency is once again not in existence means that already hard pressed families and patients with this invidious disease are left far behind their European and USA counterparts. It is a total travesty if these closures go ahead with the NHS Board members obviously having no knowledge of how this affects the patients and families lives on a daily basis.

I am disabled and it caused me a great deal of unnecessary stress and physical discomfort to have to go though a very complex form answering the same questions again and again when the DWP have already had the reasons for my claim. All they need to do is ask a patients GP or consultant to do a simple patient report that can be printed out from their computer to answer all the questions that are required. I am one of millions of people who have to do this and I am sure there are worse people than myself who will find this both distressing and painful. The reason l say distressing is because you realize what you are living and trying to cope with everyday. I was in so much physical pain after filling in this form again l was sobbing with the pain. Doctors don't put patients on morphine with a cocktail of painkillers for nothing. It is just common sense and it is about time someone said enough is enough. We are claiming DLA/PIP because we need to not because we want to.

You are not seemingly acting in the best interest of children in childcare if you bulldoze your ideas through without any thought of the impact on small business and the children they care for. You wonder why there is a downfall in people wanting to become childminders? Well is it any surprise when you are going out of your way to try to put them out of business and make life so difficult with paperwork? Perhaps you should be looking at the real reasons there will be a shortfall in childcare professionals!

The situation is already desperate!