Its dangerous and a death trap for the waterfowl

Marks & Spencer, an iconic UK retailer, has cultivated a reputation for itself as leader in quality and sustainability. Yet right now they are selling tens of thousands of tonnes of farmed salmon which scientists warn is causing environmental damage. To add insult to injury, they’re labelling this harmful product as “responsibly sourced”. M&S wants us to believe that farmed salmon is a “responsible” alternative to wild fish. In reality, salmon farms rely on catching vast quantities of wild fish to feed the caged animals. Recent investigations have found this to be driving over-fishing and endangering ecosystems as far away as South American and Africa. Closer to home, salmon farms are a huge source of pollution of Scotland’s beautiful coastline. And farmed salmon are infested with disease and sea-lice, which causes them huge suffering and spreads to wild fish in the surrounding area. Wild salmon numbers in Scotland are collapsing. Marks & Spencer describes itself as committed to a “sustainable future” and as a “leader in animal welfare”. But when it comes to their salmon, the reality is that it damages wild fish ecosystems and packs salmon into dirty, disease-infested cages. Treatments for parasites kill and hurt significant numbers of farmed salmon. These farms are not leaders in animal welfare. Let’s tell them to stop. Stop labelling unsustainable, factory farmed salmon as “responsibly sourced”. Be honest about the impacts that these products have so that your customers are empowered to make good choices.

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act is essential to holding the government accountable. But it’s being undermined by a major loophole: it doesn’t apply to government contractors. Since the Act was passed, outsourcing has vastly expanded. Government now spends £292bn a year buying goods and services – more than a third of all public expenditure. Private companies like Serco, G4S and Capita receive millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, but because they’re not subject to FOI we can’t properly hold them to account. During the pandemic £10.5bn of government contracts were awarded without competitive tender and hundreds of millions was spent on “potentially unsuitable” PPE according to the National Audit Office, the spending watchdog. It also found that suppliers with political connections were 10 times more likely to receive government contracts. Access to contractor-held information depends on the public authority and contractor agreeing to it in the contract – a totally unacceptable situation that allows vital information to be withheld from the public. We think the FOI Act should be extended to cover all contractor-held information via an FOI request to the public authority. Major contractors should be required to answer requests directly. Support for bringing contractors under FOI has come from: - The Information Commissioner, who enforces the FOI Act. - The House of Commons Public Administration & Constitutional Affairs Committee - The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee - The Committee on Standards in Public Life - The government appointed Independent Commission on Freedom of Information - The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition, which brings together 18 of the UK’s leading anti-corruption organisations - The Open Government Network of civil society organisations Will you sign the petition urging Boris Johnson to extend FOI so we can hold companies with contracts paid for by the taxpayer to account?

Police chiefs and government ministers are seeking new powers to clamp down protests that may cause disruption and, in particular, that involve direct action and civil disobedience. These changes are an unnecessary attack on the freedom to protest. Netpol's Charter for Freedom of Assembly Rights calls on the National Police Chiefs Council (the national body for Chief Constables) to accept greater transparency and accountability for the way protests are policed, based on international human rights standards. See https://netpol.org/2021/03/15/thousands-support-charter/ There have already been repeated attempts to convince senior officers to publish their own guidelines. Despite promises to do so, they have been reluctant to explain how police will protect, not restrict, the right to protest. With new restrictions planned, we are tired of waiting. Backed by a coalition of other organisations, the Charter for Freedom of Assembly Rights sets out what people taking part in protests can expect from the police. It calls for: * Proper protections – not more restrictions – for the right to protest. This includes an end to treating direct action and civil disobedience as an excuse to shut down protests completely. * An end to routine surveillance of protesters. This includes strict limitations on the use of police video recording, use of facial recognition, and surveillance of social media sites used by campaigners. * An end to the excessive use of force and the targeting of organisers for arrest, surveillance and punishment. Black-led protests in particular disproportionately face excessive and violent interventions by police. * An end to targeting the most vulnerable. The police have a particular duty to protect the rights of young people, vulnerable and disabled people wishing to exercise their rights to freedom of assembly Support the campaign by signing and sharing the petition. If you’re part of a group or organisation, you can also endorse the Charter. Contact info[at]netpol.org to add your name.

This is important because Helen Mary Jones (HMJ) has openly and proudly made speeches using derogatory and abusive terminology under the Equality Act 2010 towards trans people and trans communities as part of a repeated pattern of behaviour over years. HMJ has used her position in the Senedd to campaign for gender identity to be taken out of legal protections. We are concerned about what effect HMJ is having on Plaid Cymru, and the toxic impact she is having on LGBTQ communities across Wales. This has resulted in Youth Cymru ejecting young trans women from their meetings because of HMJ’s behaviour. Plaid Cymru is approaching activists and trans rights organisation asking to give donations and asking to buy funded training. We believe that this is an underhanded approach to damage control institutional transphobia and not address the root of the cause. Training is just the top of the iceberg. HMJ has been repeatedly enabled on a personal and institutional level directly by Plaid Cymru and Adam Price. We are worried that Plaid Cymru is choosing to actively turn back decades of good work by Plaid Cymru around equality issues to alienate would-be voters and members of Plaid Cymru. She has shown no remorse for any of this behaviour and we are worried about the environment that Plaid is creating for trans people and trans allies. Here is an article about HMJ's transphobia: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55259522 Here is HMJ speaking with trans exclusionary hate group A Woman's Place https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe2CjrBTC7w Here is the written testimony of a young trans woman of colour, Shash, who was ejected from a meeting because HMJ was there: https://itsshash.com/posts/llais-fanc-hustings-silenced-2021/ Here is another article about HMJ's transphobia: http://www.peoplefirstwales.org.uk/2018/04/trans-women-belong-in-womens-places.html ht

The existing cycle route runs along Stray Rein connecting through Rayleigh Road and Hamilton Avenue. All these roads are relatively traffic free and there are no safety concerns.This connects both to the cycle paths at the end of Hookstone estate and more importantly the railway station. The proposed cycle lane runs parallel with the existing route only a few hundred metres further east, but less well connected with both infrastructure and other facilities (like the gym, Harrogate college, climbing wall, restaurants and cafes). There appears to be no logical demand for creating a parallel but less well connected facility. Spending money on something of lower quality than what already exists would seem a waste of taxpayers money. The more worrying point is one of road safety. There is a reasonable flow of traffic along Oatlands Drive with obvious peaks at the start and finish of school times. The road is wide and has good visibility. The existing traffic will need to go somewhere. Whilst on paper it may be hoped that the traffic will use either Wetherby Road or Leeds Road a significant amount of traffic will create rat runs through the Saints or through Wheatlands Road, Stray Rein and other connecting roads. This will divert traffic into residential areas with poor visibility, parked cars and other safety issues. Moving the cycle traffic onto a road that has more traffic than on the current route increases the car/bike interaction even allowing for a dedicated cycle lane and one way system. There will still be both bike and car movements on and off Oatlands Drive. A simple solution to cars obstructing the existing Oatlands Drive cycle lanes would be to have double yellow lines.

From our perspective the provision of accessible public toilet facilities is a basic duty of local government to protect and preserve the human rights of Bristol’s residents and visitors. It is also a question of upholding the public dignity of those who need regular access to such facilities. It is also imperative that these facilities include Changing Places facilities for use for those with profound physical and learning disabilities. It is our hope that Bristol City Council will be able to make use of the £30 million fund the Government established to help local councils provide such facilities last year. http://www.changing-places.org/the_campaign/what_are_changing_places_toilets_.aspx https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-53448846 https://www.theibsnetwork.org/about-us/

A current condition of our planning, is that once construction is complete, we must block up the passing place/entrance, and build a new drive, to the west, requiring the felling of 8 mature trees, to tie into our neighbours drive. The existing passing place/entrance provides an essential passing place for motor vehicles, horses, pedestrians and cyclists, who cannot pass each other on this narrow lane. The lane is a slow bend and you cannot see oncoming traffic once you have entered the lane between the passing place/entrance to Bridge Farm, and the crossroads of Stony Lane/Dog Lane/White Cross Road. Our entrance/passing place is about halfway along this 150m stretch of blind narrow lane. Without the passing place, vehicles have to reverse up to 75m, and ones reversing eastwards, have to reverse out of a poor visibility junction onto a national speed limit road. The lane is narrow and a pram cannot pass a car, without using a passing place. The lane is on the natural village walking loop, used by many people daily. The current proposal is that this passing place must be closed up and restored to its original lane configuration. The current approved plan is to build a new driveway to the west to tie into the existing at Bridge Farm. This route will require the felling of 8 mature trees. The trees are on our home's South West corner, and will provide shade in the summer, but let light through in the winter, modulating the thermal gain, reducing the energy required to cool and heat the house. Removing them will add to the climate emergency. We accept that about 8m of mature hedgerow was removed by our predecessors, however our proposal is to plant approximately 100m of native hedgerow on our other three boundaries, more then compensating for the environmental loss. So we believe that the passing place/entrance should remain both on highway safety grounds, but also on environmental grounds

Thomas Picton’s statue has stood in the collection of Welsh Heroes in Cardiff City Hall for a hundred years, honouring his military exploits and ignoring his crimes. Even by the standards of the early 19th century, Picton was a particularly brutal figure in the transatlantic slave trade and the harsh exploitation of the sugar plantations. He was convicted of the torture of a 14-year old girl. He was no hero. Cardiff today aspires to be a welcoming city. People from across the world have settled here to work and to live, bringing vibrancy and diversity. Thomas Picton has no place in the capital city of Wales. Removing this statue will send a message to Black people in Cardiff and across the world that the city recognises the role people like Picton played in slavery, and that we must address the systemic racism that still exists due to slavery and Empire.

A much loved local sports club is at threat of being forced from its grounds after nearly 140 years because their landlord is refusing to extend its lease. The club has over 400 members, most of whom live within a mile of the club. There are two cricket teams that play every Saturday, and many “Last Man Stands” matches played on weekday evenings (this is a shortened version of cricket aimed at getting more people involved in the sport). The bowls section is very strong with 10 teams playing from the club every week, 2 of these are pensioners teams, playing in the afternoons. The other 8 teams play on weekday evenings and Saturday afternoon, all teams have men and lady members. Apart from the outdoor sports, there are many other activities, the very well attended chess club meets every Wednesday and has 5 teams playing in the Liverpool Chess Leagues. There are three quiz teams that use the club as a base, playing in the Liverpool Quiz League. On Thursdays the club has a darts team in the Dingle & District Darts League. The Cribbage team plays their league games on Wednesday nights. All the above activities take place on a home & away basis. This means that when we play the fixtures, we are supporting the local facilities & injecting money into the local economy The Formby Brass Band are based at the club. Despite their name all its members live in Liverpool, many of them close to the club. A number of the band have gained scholarships in universities around the country adding kudos to the cultural aspect of Liverpool During the summer months, we host Options for supported living. The group get tuition in bowls, quoits, enjoy the fresh air & meeting other people The club also hosts an art class which takes place during the day on Wednesdays. The club is also used by the following organizations. Friends of St Michaels station. Dingle Vale Allotment Society. Southwood Road Residents Association The local Labour Party. The local Green Party. The local pigeon fanciers. This wide range of social & sporting activities highlight the importance of the club in the local & wider area of Liverpool. It would be a devastating loss to the local community if this cherished local club is lost because an absentee landlord prefers to try to increase its value for personal gain. We call on the Chief Executive of Liverpool City Council to utilise every power available to secure the clubs long term future.

The Poppy Pantry in the City of London cemetery is a family-run cafe and wake-catering service, which proudly supports the British Legion. Our lease is due for renewal and we don’t want to lose the opportunity to keep serving the local community. Please sign and share this petition to bring attention to our cause.

My sister jasmin took her own life after suffering for years at the hands of her narcissist partner. Jasmin finally left him and should of been living her happily ever after. Jasmin asked the police etc for help and got no where. She felt the only way she could escape was to take her life. Leaving behind her two children who were her world. We need to change the law to hold these men /women accountable for thier actions. Jasmin should be here with her family instead she has gone forever. Please please sign for all the women/men who have been let down.and most importantly jasmin a mum daughter sister and auntie 💜💜💜💜