A healthy happy life and great place to live is important to us all and deep down we all want our children, families and aged citizens to live in these great places. Arts, culture, music, dance, theatre, community events, entertainment, and access locally, is the only way we can achieve this and many towns and places have already done so. But for decades Taunton has had no venue of a size that attracts big names, its town centre like many have seen decline, the night time economy is minimal, the cultural offer is small, and a high percentage of the population leave Taunton Deane to experience culture elsewhere.  We care about this, we care about Taunton, its quality of life and its future, and we know that this can be changed with an asset that use to be the civic pride of Taunton and that is the Mecca Bingo Hall in Corporation Street (also know as Gaumont Palace).  It’s important we reclaim this building and make Taunton a great place for things to do and live in, that reignites the town centre and night life, that brings people from afar who spend money with local businesses, but more importantly brings great entertainment to Taunton and provides a hub for civic activity and a place for people to meet friends and community.  We intend to make it community focused and will ensure the community can use it to create their own arts and culture. With theatre, comedy, live music, cinema, dance hall, workshops, meeting rooms, conference facilities and rehearsal space it will be a thriving hub for people of all ages and economic standing. Reclaimed by the people for the people. It's your chance to make the biggest difference to Taunton in decades.  Support us today and sign up to our campaign. Find out more about our campaign at https://project-gaumont.co.uk/

With effect from 1st April 2017 18- 21 year olds will no longer be entitled to Housing Benefit. We know that many young people rely on housing benefit to keep a roof over their heads. These young people do not choose to become homeless. They are often forced out of home because of domestic violence or family breakdown

We have too many cars coming into Standish already and we have precious little green space left. The last thing we need is to turn part of our historic recreation ground into a car park. It will mean hundreds of more cars passing one of our primary schools each day. This will cause pollution and shorten the lives of our children. It will destroy a quiet area of Standish and ruin the lives of those living nearby.

More than 50,000 people have had specially adapted vehicles taken away from them since changes to disability benefits in 2013. Vehicles are being taken away from people with disabilities without any warning whatsoever The Motability scheme entitles disabled people to lease specially adapted new vehicles and powered wheelchairs. As a Motability vehicle user my self I am terrified that this will be taken away from me , then i would not be driven to my many medical appointments. In fact I would be devastated as I have a life limiting condition, am a wheelchair user and blind. if this was to happen, my life would change dramatically I would have no quality of life and I would be isolated from everything including my own family. Peter Bone MP for Wellingborough Northamptonshire has spoken about this and is a campaigner. DWP need to review this urgently as it affects so many people's lives. The assessment needs to be looked at from a person to person illness to illness point of view rather than trying to just do a one size fits all.We do not all fit into the same box. Every disabled person with a vehicle deserves to keep their vehicle to enable them to live there lives as normal as possible and have as much independence as possible. Motability need to stop taking these adapted vehicles away as they are required by each and every disabled individual who needs a wheelchair accessible vehicle. https://youtu.be/wjEb3R7ey3E You may also be interested in the petition below which is also related to disabled people: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/allow-wheelchair-accessible-vehicles-into-rubbish-and-recycling-centres

STOP PRESS! Today, Thursday 4 May 2017 Maurice Luzolo was detained at Dallas Court, Salford. Maurice Luzolo is here in the UK because he was tortured in the Democratic Republic of Congo on account of his activism against President Kabila. He has been in the UK since 2010. His initial asylum claim was rejected, and his appeal failed because the judge claimed his story was inconsistent, ignoring a medical report evidencing Maurice’s torture. The court did not consider the psychological consequences of torture, especially the difficulties victims face in recalling the strict chronological sequence of events. An activist against Kabila throughout his time in the UK, Maurice continues to fight for his right to remain here and he is now gathering evidence to overturn the judge’s wrongful ruling in 2011. For more information, follow the link to Maurice's campaign page below.

my sister turned 21 just days before our mum passed away, now on top of having to come to terms with our loss we have been told my sister and her 2 young children will have to leave their home as it was a council property in my mums name. This just doesn't make sense, she is entitled to a 2 bed council property, that's what shes living in, Corby council want to move her into another 2 bed property and give her house to someone else for absolutely no reason we can find. Not only will this cause stress to my sister and her family it will also involve alot of extra work for the council. How can this be a justifiable way of spending tax payers money?

Most people in Glasgow rely on public transport to get around (only 49% of households have cars), yet our public transport network is a total mess. Investing in public transport is essential for expanding our region’s economy, addressing inequality and social isolation, reducing toxic levels of air pollution and tackling climate change. Bickering between political parties is letting Glasgow down. We are decades behind other cities in providing affordable and sustainable transport. We are calling for: • a publicly-owned bus company for Greater Glasgow, to offer a great service like Edinburgh's Lothian Buses • affordable, integrated ticketing, with a region-wide smartcard and daily price cap • bike hire stations across the region, with free access for concessionary card holders • a democratically-accountable Transport Authority for Greater Glasgow, with power over the entire transport network (traffic/parking controls and public transport) • a coordinated, long-term vision and investment to meet the region's transport needs

As the One Stop Shop provides access to more than 30 Council services and acts as an essential point of communication for our most vulnerable constituents to engage with council and Police liaison services since the closure of the local Police station. Centralising Social Work services would deal a heavy blow to the public who are already vulnerable who may not be able to travel to new accommodations via disability or lack of funds due to rising public transport costs.

Chechyna has just opened the first concentration camp for homosexuals since WW2. Reports say that 100 gay men have so far been detained and three killed in Chechnya last week. All human life is sacred and should be protected but particularly minority groups, who are more open to abuse and need more protection in law. We've been down this road before where governments round up groups of people and we should never go down that road again. The world needs to work together to close the concentration camps for gay men in Chechnya and put protections into law for LGBT+ citizens throughout Russia and the world.

Highways (England) are proposing to re-route this part of the A428 through the beautiful Cambridgeshire countryside. As justification they say traffic will be speeded up by a few minutes at peak times. But building new roads just makes room for even more traffic. The only result is a continuous and permanent loss of England’s green and pleasant land. Please sign this petition and pass it on to your friends. And, more importantly, submit your objection to Highways public consultation. A sample objection is given below The consultation period ends on April 23rd. So this is urgent. Email your objection to [email protected] giving your full name and postal address. Sample Objection A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet proposal The proposed by-pass road is un-necessary. Improvements to the Black Cat roundabout (proposed in the Plan) and to the Caxton Gibbet roundabout (not included in the Plan) will speed up the travel time to a degree which makes a new road un-necessary. The argument for the new road is basically an economic one that eventually it will increase the UK gross domestic project (GDP). However the GDP per capita has remained fundamentally unchanged over the last 15 years despite the building of new roads and the widening of many others. Thus there is likely to be no economic gain. The loss of Cambridgeshire countryside will be permanent. It is just one further example of the constant erosion of our countryside heritage which is occurring throughout England. The value of this loss has not been weighed against any real economic gain or indeed against the perceived gains as seen by the proposers of this Plan Should Highways reject these arguments the Orange route is to be preferred.

***5000 signatures forces the Council to discuss the issue at a Council Meeting. Please only sign this petition if you live, work or use LD services in Somerset*** The transfer of Somerset’s Learning Disability Service from Somerset County Council to Discovery was promised as a means of ensuring sustainable care for people with a learning disability, with ‘no savings targets’. It is now clear, however, that to make the £4m saving predicted Discovery plan to make staff redundant, reduce the terms and conditions of those left, and possibly close day centres. By starving funding for adult social care Somerset County Council have handed Discovery the task of implementing cuts that will hit the care provided to vulnerable people. Cuts will lower morale, risk high staff turnover, and leave staff vacancies unfilled. Service users and their families were promised a sustainable service focused on the continuity of care delivered by experienced, knowledgeable and familiar staff. The cuts proposed will be highly detrimental to the delivery of personalised quality care. We are therefore calling on Somerset County Council to give LD Services the funding that it needs to ensure continued high quality care for vulnerable adults in Somerset. If the current cuts are progressed this will not be achieved.

Atherton skatepark was recently demolished randomly and out of the blue with no notice or warning what so ever. It was important to each and every single person who uses or did use the skatepark or even anybody who wants to take up extreme sports. The skatepark was much loved by locals and people that are not so local, it kept so many young people out of trouble and off the streets doing something they love! The council have just took that away! PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE THIS PETITION AND LETS GET ANOTHER FACILITY BUILT!