A large number of regular customers don’t have access to the internet and rely on the face to face contact this branch can provide them with to deal with their day to day banking needs. This branch is only one of two banks remaining on South Elmsall High Street and to see it closed would cause huge difficulties for all the locals who haven’t got the means and ability to travel to other areas to visit a different branch. For the foreseeable future, due to the current climate and restrictions surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of people are either unable to, or feel unsafe to travel out of their local area, which would mean they are either unable to access their bank accounts and their funds in their or The Yorkshire Building Society will lose a lot of customers to the only other remaining bank in the village, which would be a shame as many of your locals have been loyal to the YBS for many years.

The residents of Green Tree Brae need your help to prevent any future flooding to their properties. We have a simple solution to alleviate the threat of flooding to our homes. We are proposing to remove the foot bridge and build a wall to block the gap between our properties and the burn. We will also require to divert the right of way which runs across our land from Dyke side to the Main Street (an addition of 40m). The flood prevention measures which were put in place in 2008 have failed and are not fit for purpose. We are now living with the constant threat of flooding. We want to make you aware of the devastating situation we are in and we need to know how residents within the village feel about the difficult decision to request the diversion of the right of way. It has come down to a choice between keeping a short cut accessible or protecting our homes and families from the threat of flooding. We have been given the advice from Fife Council that we need community support if we want to divert the right of way with a wall to prevent the flood water. Unfortunately some of our friends and neighbours who have also been affected by the flooding do not have such an easy solution. We are hopeful that local residents will help us by supporting the only option that makes sense. Can you please pledge your support by signing our petition? To read the full story of the flooding situation at Green Tree Brae, please continue reading below. Thank you for your support - the residents of Green Tree Brae. ************************** Green Tree Brae has been hit by flooding a number of times, causing financial, emotional and physical distress. The homeowners were forced out of their homes for 6 months due to significant flood damage in 2008. Flooding occurred again in Aug 2020, when the Fire Brigade told the homeowners to evacuate due to safety concerns. The flooding in 2020 was extremely dangerous, flood waters carry a risk to life from the speed and depth of water as well as from the contamination carried by it. It is devastating that our 5 young children have been traumatised by the threat of the flooding and that two OAP's had to wade through two feet of flood water carrying wet and heavy sandbags in an effort to protect their homes, when there is an easy and quick way to ensure flooding does not happen again. Freuchie Burn flows within a 1 meter of the nearest dwelling, flowing directly from moorland near the summit of East Lomond Hill. The flow is straight downhill with only one bend where the burn flows under the A912. The last Kilometre before reaching Freuchie is across farmland where new field drains, new extra- large culverts and extensive water channel ground works have replaced the old drainage resulting in a much greater volume of flood water travelling at an increased velocity into the village. The footbridge is built at the narrowest point in the burn, where water is forced between two banks going from 8m wide to a little over 1m at the bridge. Water flowing through this choke point is forced upwards to a height of approximately 3m and the speed of the water is accelerated substantially at this point. The flood water passes over and under the footbridge which then becomes an obstruction attracting all sorts of debris which is driven at speed by the flood. A barrier attached to the footbridge which was installed after the flood of 2008 failed to retain the water as the speed, depth and volume of water were simply too much for it. The barrier has at times required to be physically closed by the residents on occasions when it failed to close properly. There has been no engineering maintenance carried out on the bridge/ barrier in over 12 years. This barrier is not accredited by any standards organisation as being fit to function as a flood barrier. All of the natural flood planes have been eradicated by the construction of new housing and field drainage. The remaining burns walls which contain these vast volumes of water within the watercourse are under considerable strain and should a garden wall collapse under this weight of water it would most likely destroy the two properties nearest the burn, which is why the residents were instructed by the emergency services to evacuate their property. At the same time as Freuchie Burn was breeching the barrier on the footbridge, secondary flooding was taking place. This happened when floodwater ran down the brae and across the gardens. Rainwater under normal circumstances would drain through the rainwater drains located front and rear of the properties, however as previously mentioned these were blocked with sandbags and impossible to use because of the high water level and the velocity of the water in the burn. By using boards, buckets and brushes over a protracted period of time the water was eventually driven from the property’s front doors by the homeowners. To be flooded once is unfortunate, to be flooded twice is negligent, to be flooded three times is a disgrace. We, as the homeowners are just asking for support to protect our homes, at no cost to the village, Council or community.

Thousands of people watched the BBC1 Countryfile programme on Sunday 25th October when it gave this information: Over 3,000 of our 7000 'Sites of Special Scientific Interest' across the UK, some 40% are in poor condition. In England over 70% of these sites have not been checked in the last 6 years, it is 30% in Scotland, Wales have 'no comprehensive monitoring', and the Northern Ireland authority didn't respond to the request for information. The budget of Natural England was £240M in 2010, but £100M in 2018 a dramatic fall necessitating a loss of a third of its staff. The Environment Agency (also responsible for flood protection), has lost two thirds of its staff since 2010, and last year only 4% of reported pollution incidents and other potential breaches of regulations were even investigated. We ask the Prime Minister to honour his pledge to tackle biodiversity loss and return the budgets of Natural England and the Environmental Agency to 2010 levels at the next budget, if not in his own words “now, right now!”, and to continue to fund Environmental Protection with increased and realistic budgets in the future, which meet the increasing environmental crisis.

As Directors of an environmental outdoor education centre in the recent past for two decades we have experienced children (and teachers) discover a new and abiding relationship with the natural world which at a time when we are experiencing the onset of environmental and climate disaster is essential for future generations. An eight year old who had never seen the stars seeing the milky way for the first say exclaimed, "There ain't no stars in Kilburn". For the first time he was experiencing beyond himself.

Given the crisis that the world is facing because of Covid this is not the time for leaders to take pay rises while the poorest in our society go hungry. MPs should publicly declare these donations in the registrar of MPs interests.

The home we are currently living in was originally my Nan and Grandads, my mum and her siblings where brought up in this house and sadly when my nan and grandad passed away the house became my uncles (Carl) who was in ill health, so i decided the best thing to do would move in with him to help with keeping the house and himself in good form. Unfortunately in May this year my uncle was diagnosed with terminal cancer for which he received no treatment due to COVID 19. in August this year my uncle sadly lost his battle with cancer. We are now having to fight for the family home as Cobalt are not willing to pass this house down to me. Cobalt have said i couldn't have the house as there is no proof of me living there IE bills in my name. At the time this was not the top of my priority list i was staying caring for my uncle and all bills was in Carl's name. I have been staying at the family home since May 2018 with Carl and as far as both Carl and i was aware the bills had to be in the tenants name and Cobalt classed me as a family member. Going forward me and my family don't want to lose this home as there are so many memories of people who are really close to me and everyone else. As you all can understand i am absolutely devastated of the loss of my uncle Carl. I couldn't begin to imagine the further heartache i will endure by losing the home as this is the last thing we have left to help us feel close to them.

According to the end child poverty coalition, 27. 2% children live in poverty in Barnet. This equates to 6566 children after housing costs in 2018-2019. We, the undersigned, urge Barnet council to take urgent action and join the councils across the country and provide free school meals for those Barnet children eligible over October half term and beyond. Please sign below to support the campaign.

This is important to so many of our villagers. They love seeing our peacocks just wandering around the village where ever they like. It has been an awful year for most of us and the peacocks have brought so much joy and happiness to so many people of all ages

In return for a further bail-out of Transport for London, the government is trying to force the Mayor and Tfl, among other things, to agree to withdraw travel concessions (Freedom Pass) from London's pensioners. That would be devastating for older people who have no car, especially those who live alone. For them, the Freedom Pass is an absolutely vital lifeline; losing it would mean even more isolation than we have already suffered during Lockdown. Being unable to travel into town to meet friends or visit attractions, will have a terrible effect on our mental health - loneliness amongst the elderly is already a major problem, and this would increase hugely, as would the suicide rate - without social contact, life is not worth living! In fact, there is no point in living in the metropolis, if we cannot afford to travel and benefit from its many "free" attractions - its many historic buildings, museums and galleries, parks, concerts in the City churches, etc.,, and even just scenic walks along the Thames! I would move out of London, as would most of my friends, and we are surely not the only ones. London stands to lose much of the senior "spend" in its shops and cafes. The voluntary sector would grind to a halt, as charity shops rely so much on retired people, and the Friends of City Churches would lose most of their Church Watchers (mostly retired) who keep these wonderful buildings open for visitors and tourists to enjoy. If the govt. applies the Pension Credit limit, as they have for the TV licence, that would exclude almost all of us, as the eligibility threshold has not kept pace with inflation (the savings limit is the same as 10 years ago!). It means that the thrifty who have tried to save a little for their retirement and are just managing to scrape by, will suffer the most - after contributing to taxation all their lives! All we are asking is fairness. Travel is not a luxury but a necessity. Other countries subsidise their public transport systems far more generously, with less reliance on fares, so are less affected by the Pandemic. We ask the government not to punish the elderly for something which is not our fault.

We need to retain and recruit healthcare staff. There are estimated to be well over a 100,000 vanccancies within the NHS. To put this into context, £6.2bn was spent on agency and bank staff last year to cover staff shortages and keep the NHS afloat! We are now dependent on bank or agency staff to help plug the gaps, mainly to fill nursing roles. Staff state that the quality of care is “compromised” and one in six said “patient safety was put at risk. NHS staff have been forced to work outside of their skill remit and contracted hours of work to meet the demands of a failing workforce. There have been initiatives to recruit overseas nurses to bridge these gaps however this is not feasible due to the travel restriction at this time. In order to recruit and retain staff the NHS needs to be a safe working environment that puts patient safety and the health and wellbeing of its staff first. It is astonishing that NHS professionals cannot afford to live and are using food banks or exhausting themselves with second jobs to make ends meet. NHS staff need to be paid in line with other healthcares workers and pay inequality needs to be addressed by the NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB). This petition is very important, the only report covering pay satisfaction was conducted in England and from the data collected it is clear that only a small proportion of staff were satisfied with pay the they received on AFC. The evidence states that staff satisfaction increased from 29% in 2017, before the pay agreement, to 36% in 2019. Therefore every signature counts towards evidence. Please sign this petition.

Over 75% of the UK National Trust members voted against hunting last year at the AGM...I am one of them.

The 60+ Oyster Card and Freedom Pass are currently under threat. Peak time travel with these concessionary passes has been suspended for some months but the Mayor has now been told to remove the passes altogether. Given the prohibitive price of travel in London, such an action would be catastrophic for older Londoners, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet, and may lead to widespread social isolation and depression.