• Start Food Waste Collection In Horsham District
    We propose that Horsham District Council provides a food waste collection and anaerobic digestion or in-vessel composting service in Horsham. Our planet is poised on the brink of a severe environmental crisis. The public not only recognises the need to be more environmentally conscious but also environmentally proactive. Change starts with ourselves and our personal choices, but given this facility we could make a difference on a wider scale. The average family wastes on average 20% of the foods they purchase at a cost of £60 a month. 4 million tonnes of unavailable food waste is generated a year from households alone. Not only do we have a moral obligation to reduce waste, it also makes economic sense. It costs less than half to recycle food waste through anaerobic digestion compared to including it with the household waste. This means that recycling food waste would make long-term savings to help protect our critical frontline council services like social care, libraries and schools. Recycling food waste also represents the most sustainable way of extracting value and turning this waste into a resource. The generated electricity from the gas produced during the anaerobic digestion process can either be fed back into the National Grid or perhaps used to provide power for a housing estate for poorer families. The other huge benefit to anaerobic digestion is the reduction of CO2 – every tonne of food waste recycled by anaerobic digestion as an alternative to landfill prevents between 0.5 and 1.0 tonne of CO2 entering the atmosphere. We are aware that the Biffa Brookhurst Wood plant in Warnham currently processes food waste in an Anaerobic Digester however separating waste types at point of collection is the most efficient way of minimising contamination between different waste and maximising the value that can be recovered from each waste. That is why we believe that single stream source segregation of food waste is so important. A Food Waste collection service would surely be welcomed by Horsham residents, especially given the forthcoming cut to general waste collection to every fortnight rather than every week from 5 February 2018. This is part of Horsham District Council’s proposal to reduce the amount of waste we recycle from the current 44% to national target of 50% by 2020. Furthermore as part of a 2015 analysis, Horsham Council found that 28% of what we throw away is food waste. We fully support the Council’s pledge to encourage recycling and reduce general waste. If food waste collection was to be introduced, it would surely be a natural partnership to help residents achieve this goal. We suggest the following steps as a starting point: 1. The council makes contact with large scale in-vessel composting companies, and makes plans for the practicalities of collection, composting, and use of the compost. If necessary, the council can contact other councils who have successfully overcome this issue, for advice. For example: Lewes Council: Matthew Busby, Waste & Recycling Customer Support, Acting Supervisor Surrey County Council: Mike Goodman, Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning Jason Russell, Deputy Director for Environment & Infrastructure Jacqui Archer, PA and Project Support Officer 2. Once initial planning stages are in place, the new service is announced to the public with details about how to use the service, and the good news about the impact this will have on the environment and economy. 3. Compost collection bins, and compostable bags if needed, are delivered to all the residents in Horsham with instructions on how to use, how the collection service works, and information about where the food waste will go as well as the positive environmental impact. 4. Food waste collection and responsible disposal is rolled out across the Horsham District. 5. Find ways to monitor the food waste scheme, and create a report one year later of the impact this has had in terms of waste reduction and sustainability in Horsham. Share these results with residents to encourage them to continue to use the service. We believe a realistic timeframe for the above to be implemented is by December 2018, and urge the council to rise to this.
    819 of 1,000 Signatures
    Created by Lucy Holloway
  • Protect Cancer Care in Cornwall
    We at 38 Degrees St Ives Branch, and the Cornwall Cancer Team, find the proposals without merit. Many cancer patients will have to travel much further for treatment every day for a number of weeks. This will be detrimental to their recovery and it is doubtful that all sick patients will even undertake such a venture and may instead opt for a more detrimental treatment or even no formal treatment at all. More people will die as a result. The travelling regime of a potentially two hundred miles plus journey for treatment every day (a 6-hour minimum round trip per day from W Cornwall) over 6-7 weeks will not aid recovery. Also travel costs reimbursement schemes and assisted travel have been severely cut. Public transport is not an option across much of Cornwall and is expensive for someone on benefits or pension. This is unjust. We have over 500,000 residents and the proposed regional centres are for half a million plus, so this shouldn't be an issue in any case. Such a plan also ignores the distinctive demographics and geography of Cornwall and that RCHT in Truro already provides (and paid for) equipment and expertise, which will consequently be under utilised. We have a good, modern facility here in Cornwall which needs to be used to capacity, not under utilised due to a centralising cutting exercise because we fall a little below the numbers threshold - we have unique geographic, demographic and economic constraints in Cornwall which mean we need our own facility left intact.
    11,950 of 15,000 Signatures
    Created by Michelle Brown
  • Help Inclusion Ventures Find A Secure Space on the Percy King Estate
    As many of you know, at Inclusion Ventures we offer a range of support to young people aged 7+ and their families. We run a number of our sessions from Coppins Hall Community Centre in the 'Base' room, in the last six months alone we have been running up to six sessions a week from the centre supporting around 15+ children in each session. We had a re-launch of the Inclusion Ventures space back in March this year, where the staff and the children took on the task of making the room into a safe, welcoming and home from home type environment. Being at the centre of this estate our sessions have been used to meet the needs of the community, we have offered from these sessions a variety of support. Support includes: -Emotional Support - Mentoring -Sports Activities - Arts and Crafts - Drama - Music - Relationship Building, -Health eating -Restorative justice -Employment -Family Support -We also know that healthy eating is a big concern of many of the parents of our young people so we also use these sessions to provide healthy meals free of charge. For the time being we will continue to support our young people as we know they are the most important people in all of this and will unfortunately be the most affected by this change. We will be providing out reach services and offering trips to local organisations at the times when sessions would have been on whenever possible. This petition will be a vital way of showing funders and the local council that Inclusion Ventures needs a space of its own within the Percy King community in Clacton to fully meet the needs of our young people. So we need your help! Please could you sign the petition and leave any feedback you have about the services and the need for Inclusion Ventures to continue being a part of such a fantastic community. We are so sorry that this is happening and for the inconvenience it will cause. Please be assured that all of the Inclusion Ventures team are working hard to get this issue resolved. You can contact us on 01255 688685 for any further information or concerns.
    127 of 200 Signatures
    Created by Inclusion Ventures
  • Save Castleberg Hospital
    Castleberg Hospital is a small cottage hospital in Settle where I recently spent two and a half weeks as a patient. Living in a rural community these small hospitals are important in terms of travelling for treatment or visiting. In November Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) launched a three-month consultation about the community health service. There are two options the consultation is looking at: 1. continue to provide inpatient care in the community and repair or restore Castleberg Hospital 2. provide more care in people’s home or another community place and close Castleberg Hospital Losing Castleberg Hospital would be a huge loss to the area and would mean patients will have to travel further for care. Please sign the petition and make sure we keep the service open.
    371 of 400 Signatures
    Created by Betty Sherlock
  • Increase in funding for children's mental health
    There is a young 8 year old boy called Jack who was admitted to Alder Hey Children's Hospital on the 25th October 2017, SEVEN WEEKS AGO. Jack lives with autism and has mental health issues; extreme low self-esteem, suicidal. Jack has recently had a severe mental breakdown - hence the stay at Alder Hey Hospital. Jack was assessed as a tier 4 and has been waiting in hospital for a bed to come available in a children’s unit, for SEVEN WEEKS. Jack or his family have been offered no support from CAMHS in the past seven weeks. This is the reason why; Jack has been assessed by the Tier 4 team(in-patient CAMHS unit) and is waiting on an inpatient bed becoming available. This means they cannot work with Jack in his current environment (Alder hey hospital) only once allocated a bed within a unit, So, Jack does not fit the CRITERIA for tier 3 support (community), and can not access the tier 4 support until he is an inpatient in their unit. It is imperative that the government increase funding for children's mental health to prevent this level of waiting time and the dangerous gap that exists between accessible support in a crisis.
    2,370 of 3,000 Signatures
    Created by Julie Awang
  • Increase in beds in children's mental units
    There is a young 8 year old boy called Jack who was admitted to Alder Hey Children's Hospital on the 25th October 2017, SEVEN WEEKS AGO. Jack lives with autism and has mental health issues; extreme low self-esteem, suicidal. Jack has recently had a severe mental breakdown - hence the stay at Alder Hey Hospital. Jack was assessed as a tier 4 and has been waiting in hospital for a bed to come available in a children’s unit, for SEVEN WEEKS. Jack or his family have been offered no support from CAMHS in the past seven weeks. This is the reason why; Jack has been assessed by the Tier 4 team(in-patient CAMHS unit) and is waiting on an inpatient bed becoming available. This means they cannot work with Jack in his current environment (Alder hey hospital) only once allocated a bed within a unit, So, Jack does not fit the CRITERIA for tier 3 support (community), and can not access the tier 4 support until he is an inpatient in their unit. It is imperative that NHS England fund more beds in children's mental health units to prevent this level of waiting time and the dangerous gap that exists between accessible support in a crisis.
    1,887 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Julie Awang
  • Urge all councils to provide overnight housing for homeless
    It is so tough being homeless. But the worst is during the Winter. At night you are fighting for your life. So we urge all City Councils to provide appropriate accommodation. This does not need to be a struggle, but for many it currently is. By signing this, you could save a life. A basic human right is the right to life. So why wait. Please, for the good of all. Thank you
    7,160 of 8,000 Signatures
    Created by William Burbidge
  • For Bugs' Sake - Stop Tilbury Expansion
    The former Tilbury Power Station site supports an amazing assemblage of invertebrates, including 159 species of conservation concern and 31 rare or threatened species; among them the Shrill carder bee (Bombus sylvarum), Blue carpenter bee (Ceratina cyanea), Four-banded weevil-wasp (Cerceris quadricincta), Puff-ball beetle (Caenocara bovistae) and Green malachite beetle (Malachius vulneratus). Over half of high biodiversity potential brownfield sites in the Thames Gateway have been destroyed since 2007, but Tilbury is an exceptionally important site for open mosaic habitat invertebrates. The mix of substrates, including Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA) and Lytag, has fostered the development of the unusual drought stressed grasslands, lichen heaths, and herb and lichen-rich grasslands that support the endangered species. The incredible assemblage of invertebrates currently found on the Tilbury site won’t be able to survive the development. Much positive work is needed to save brownfield biodiversity in the Thames Gateway, but destroying this wildlife jewel will take out one of the last remaining large areas of wildflower rich habitat.
    75,314 of 100,000 Signatures
    Created by Paul Hetherington Picture
  • Bottle Deposit Scheme
    It is estimated that at least 8 million tonnes of plastic leak into the ocean every year – which is equivalent to dumping the contents of one rubbish truck into the ocean every minute. This plastic then causes harm to our wildlife, pollutes our water, washes up on our shores and even ends up in our food chain.
    159 of 200 Signatures
    Created by Bottle-less . Picture
  • NHS
    This is important because it could undermine both children's services right across Lancashire and the whole viability of Lancashire NHS trust itself.
    67 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Steve Tomo
  • Keep school breakfast clubs open
    This is a necessity for parents and kids who use it. It allows parents to work, look after younger and/or disabled siblings, and helps kids interact with other kids outside their regular daily surroundings. Closing these clubs would be detrimental to our children and have a massive negative effect on social economic development. This will also put costs up for families having to seek other means of childcare.
    1,063 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Pamela McCabe
  • Get dangerous malm drawers recalled in the UK
    I have just seen yet another post on social media of a child very badly injured after these drawers have fallen on them. Luckily the child escaped this time, however how many more children need to be injured or even to loose their life, before these dangerous drawers are recalled worldwide!
    182 of 200 Signatures
    Created by Vanessa Willis