SANE SISTAS want to hold a coercive control impact on mental health event. As part of this event we want to share real life stories of women who have been through the family court process. In order to highlight the impact this is having on mental health. Many victims are undergoing trauma responses due to their past abuse. Many have a diagnosis of PTSD and some undiagnosed due to fear of this being used against them. We propose to host an event in 2020 and we want the law commissioners to attend. Our focus is • Women who have fled coercive abuse • Women who have a mental health diagnosis Why is this important? “Crisis” was the word used by the previous Head of the Family Division, Sir James Munby. His successor Sir Andrew McFarlane has suggested that the word “crisis” may not be helpful, but also he too remains in no doubt that there are serious issues that need to be addressed. There has been much talk in recent times of our criminal justice system being in turmoil, if not crisis. Much of this has been fueled by the cuts made to legal aid provision. How is this impacting? • Greater numbers of defendants having to represent themselves. At hearings. As well as this being perceived as a diminution of the rights of defendants to a fair trial and the disposal of effective justice it can also have a deleterious impact. Cross examination by perpetrators has since been restricted however the impact is still present. Many are actively coerced throughout due the lack of education of coercive control. • Higher numbers of Domestic related applications. In 2017 new cases Domestic abuse was an issue in at least 70% of cases in the family courts. This is not accounting for the cases that are regularly taken back time and time again. • Increase in applications: in the period April to June this year over sixty eight thousand cases started in family courts, a seven percent increase from a similar period last year. • More calls to social services and CAFCAS, increasing pressures. A back log of cases in family court. The victim experience A victim can attend a criminal trial in relation to abuse one week and have extra support, with no direct contact with their perpetrator. However could attend family court the next day and share the same waiting room as them. Why should this be so? To appear in any court as a victim of domestic abuse should require continuing protection and the need to feel safe as it is just as traumatic, potentially, as giving evidence in a criminal trial. Yet as things stand little if anything is available. Cross examination has been stopped, but the trauma that is inflicted has not. In fact I myself spent a whole year unable to access NHS support for my PTSD due to "not being out of the trauma". The impact of which on many occasions sent my PTSD into crisis, in which I had to be visited weekly by a crisis nurse. No one told me I would have to share a room with my perpetrator, attend sometimes for 10 minutes when I had spent months preparing, that I would be drowning in debt, that my abuse or diagnosis could be used as a weapon against me or that I would need more therapy then I needed when I first left. But I am not alone; women all over the UK are having mental health diagnosis used against them in family court, despite the impact of the process being a significant factor in the restrictions of recovery and an abuse free life. Many of these women only have a diagnosis due to the trauma they endured, how and why can this be then used against them? Worse so is, women are not accessing treatment intentionally out of fear their mental health will be held against them. Trauma informed support is long overdue in the family courts. Appearing at family court can be a hugely stressful experience and more support is needed to help navigate through this complex system so survivors can recover. This could not only change the lives of survivors and children but also the court throughput process, easing pressure on services. Until we make this change, more women will take their lives, mental health waiting lists will add up, children will be adversely affected and the future of survivors all over is not safe. Support us by • Sign and share our petition – share with local Cllrs and MPs in your area • Purchase our merchandise and tag us on social media to show your support. Profits support survivor’s meets and campaigns. • Send us your experience’s to add to our case studies. All names will be anonymous but this helps us build evidence of the impact on mental health. We will support you with this if you email • Fill in our survey • Become an ally – Write a 200 word statement as to why this is important to you and share it with your local MPs and councillors. • Add us on our face book page, Instagram and twitter. • Book a speaker or workshop on the impact of coercive control to help fund materials for peer sessions and other campaign materials. • Add our #moresupportinfamilycourt #traumainformedsupportinfamilycourt Join us • To join our support group please drop us a message via our social media or email and we will provide details. • Protests – We have group protests plans for 2020. In the mean time we have activists who will be handing out flyers, chalking and making small statements of solidarity. We are also supporters of the #THECOURTSAID campaign and will attend the protest at parliament square on October 26th. Please join us in solidarity. Our end goal is: -Not to share rooms with our perpetrators. This allow perpetrators to intimidate and coerce further. -To have clear understanding of the court process and the support we can access. -A bursary or funds to access therapy (not 8 weeks of CBT). Not to be denied therapy as "its counter productive" or because perpetrators can access health records. - Health records visible to courts not perpetrators

It is a quick and easy way to find information for those without computers / smartphones without trawling though programmes. My elderly Mum uses it for weather forecasts in text form to decide about her day's activities. I find the news-bites useful and the travel information is in one place (London's roads and rails) with simple accessible 24/7 weather forecasts in 3 hour slots. Its virtue is its simplicity and access, and it comes at no extra cost.

The government might close a route for separated child refugees to reach their families after a no-deal Brexit. Sayeed shares his story, and why you should sign the petition: "I am worried for child refugees in Europe who may no longer be able to reunite with family safely as I did. The Government could close this route to safety for child refugees, putting thousands of child refugees at risk. As a result children like me may be forced to jump on the back of lorries or overcrowded dinghies to be with family. I need your help to make sure the Government changes its mind. I need you to sign my petition. When I was 15 I was forced to flee Afghanistan because of civil war that made my life really dangerous. Leaving my Mum and Dad behind, I travelled for months on my own before I reached Calais - I walked, travelled by car, in lorries and on boats all by paying smugglers. Luckily when I reached Calais I found out that there was a legal route for me to be with my sister in the UK, until then most nights I was trying to jump on the back of lorries. But I never made it, I was stopped by police and beaten with a truncheon. It was so painful. Thanks to a route to family reunion I was able to come to the UK on the Eurostar to restart my life. I’ve now got leave to remain and am studying to be an electrician while taking my Maths and English GCSEs. I would feel awful if Brexit stopped other children like me from being with their family. Leaving them to make their own way from France, Greece or Italy is not a solution. Without this route they’ll be encouraged by traffickers to take even more dangerous journeys. Please sign the petition today."

Our children now and in the future need these spaces to run, play, sit and develop. Once they are gone so will our children’s freedom to run around and play for free!

The closure would be a disaster for residents and the community. It is the only local pool which provides one to one swimming lessons to disabled children and adults. For many disabled children and adults this is the only activity they do a week. Swimming is such an important life skill for children as they grow up. It has so many benefits https://www.swimming.org/learntoswim/why-your-child-should-learn-to-swim/ The Swim School at Charnwood College has been stopped as a result of the pending closure. How many are going to miss out? Charnwood College Pool offers the ethnic community an ideal place to swim in a private environment where there are no windows so users cannot be seen from anyone outside. The Ladies Asian group for example who have swum at the pool for many years will no longer be able to swim. Swimming is invaluable for mental health and physical well being and the effects of exercise in water is well documented: https://www.swimming.org/swimengland/new-study-says-swimming-benefits-mental-health/ https://www.swimming.org/swimengland/health-and-wellbeing-benefits-of-swimming/ If David Ross Educational Trust go ahead with their plan to close the pool it will be a complete disaster and the sad loss of a well loved and much used pool. So many children and adults will miss out. HELP US SAVE THE POOL. Thank you for adding your support with your signature NOW. We appreciate it. Cllr. Dr Julie Bradshaw MBE Cllr. Paul Boldrin

I have been campainging for years and have been interviewed locally By Hereford and Worcester local radio, had positive responses from Newspapers and contacted Rip Off Britain. I have been asked in the past to pay extra but refuse to do so. Tour operators are just as guilty as they are complicit in allowing this practice to continue.

A new incinerator is planned to be built in CF3 on Newlands Road, Wentloog Cardiff. This is in very close proximity to homes & schools. For example it is only 500 meters away from Eastern High School. Many residences and other schools within the CF3 are also well within a 1/2-mile radius of it. The planned incinerator will burn 200,000 tonnes of industrial waste per year and will operate 24/7. It is planned to be built as early as 2020/21. The industrial waste to be burned will be transported to the planned site using 80 lorries everyday each carrying 20 tonnes of waste. The toxic ash generated by the incinerator will also need to be transported away. The size of the planned site is 1.5 rugby pitches in size with the main building being over 40 meters in height and the chimney stack being over 70 meters in height. We believe this incinerator is not what residents of CF3 want in their community. We believe this will generate noise, air pollution, traffic and will not be good for the health of those living in the CF3 community. We only have until the 29th of November to oppose this through consultation. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and help keep CF3 a healthy community everyone wants to live and work in.

Since 2010/11, decisions made by Kingston council administrations have caused cuts of almost 25% (roughly £700,000 ) to the local library services. Kingston Council plans to cut a further £111,000 from library budgets in the next two years. This raises the possibility of further staff cuts, to the point that libraries may begin to close.

Public transport is already very limited in Claines. There is no Sunday service and no evening service A large amount of retired residents live in the ward and frequently use the service. If taken away, many residents will be unable to undertake regular, routine trips. Shops, services, GPs, dentists, events, friends and family will all become inaccessible . Many young families also live in the ward. Parents with prams, pushchairs and buggies and no access to a car will struggle. Residents with reduced mobility and no car will be unable to access the minimal and unreliable other services servicing the main roads only.

I have started this petition today as I am fed up of seeing people advertising giving their animals away for free on freecycle.org Animals that you are responsible for should be treated as a family member not as an object you can just dispose of. Members on freecycle do not know who each other are, who are they to know and a judge a person on meeting. How are they to know what that person is going to do to the animal once they receive them or worse what will they USE them for? In conclusion they do not care in alot of cases as long as they have got rid. Obviously doing a quick post on freecycle is alot less effort than going to a rescue centre. If you no longer want an animal make the efforts to take them to a rescue shelter or centre, it is the RIGHT THING TO DO and the safest thing to do for the animals. I have a personal experience with freecycle I would like to share with you: Last year I saw an offer for baby chicks, 10 of them ( live chicks ) they were being advertised as "freezer food"....LIVE CHICKS. So I responded to this and said I would have them. I collected them, sweet little things they were, all male. The farmer seemed genuinely disappointed that I was giving them forever homes, I took them to Green Acres animal rescue which is in Pembrokeshire Wales. For those of you who don't know, male chicks are seen as useless in animal agriculture as they cannot lay eggs and they are not sold for meat, so they are culled pretty much the day they are born. Please help animals by signing my petition. Much love Gina

The hedgehog population is in severe decline and cars are one of the biggest causes of injury and death. Drivers need to be made aware to look out at certain times mostly dawn and dusk and to SLOW DOWN. To spread awareness is important and hedgehogs are most vulnerable when they are coming out of hibernation and also when the mum's leave the babies to get food. Often they don't return to their young as they have been killed or injured by cars hence the poor little ones die or go out alone and usually starve to death. Many people and drivers are not aware of this and even if one person notices the sign then that is a good thing. These are beautiful and funny little creatures who have enough to battle with. I have become passionate about the hedgehog as I have them regularly visit my garden. I have sadly also witnessed dead ones on the road. I have also become involved as a Hedgehog Champion and want to do my bit in trying to help these delightful creatures that one day we may not be so lucky to have anymore.

Many drivers find it takes far too long to get onto the roundabout from the M & S Exit and end up making a ''mad dash'' for it making it dangerous for everyone using the roundabout. Proper road markings would give drivers clearer indication which lane they should be in. The roundabout has heavy use. There are two exits using the M3 and M27 and another also using the Motorway plus the train station and the Airport. Tailbacks are causing frustration. An accident occurred with a truck and bicycle a while back and we feel its now time to take action for the safety of everyone who uses it. i.e. pedestrians, bicycles, disabled wheelchair users, HGV and other vehicles. This roundabout was deemed 'dangerous' by a County Councillor in 2016 and yet nothing has been done. We are now awaiting a response from HCC and Mimms Davies, our local MP>