IVF treatment is being increasing restricted on the NHS due to budget constraints. Making it impossible for many people to have this treatment. At around £5,000 for a private cycle, it can take many years to save for a treatment. If tax payers could claim back their tax on these payments, it would reduce the final bill by around 30% for a basic rate tax payer, making it a more achievable goal. This treatment for many is not a life choice, infertility is often caused by illness and not just 'leaving it to late'. If people can save tax on buying a bike, why not help people build a family.

Medway council want to cut support for children in Medway to pay for an elaborate 10 day celebration and re-enactment of a 350 year-old naval battle - the Battle of Medway. £60,000 will be taken from children’s services to pay for the celebrations - which include jet ski demonstrations, fireworks and over-the-top battle reenactments. This money should be ring fenced for children's services. As a Medway council tax payer I know where I want the money to be spent - on children! Find out further information via: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-39802511 Please share widely across your social networks.

We already pay council tax which covers the emptying of our waste recycling bins so why should we pay more on top of the council tax to have our green bin emptied.

STV2 are ignoring the many complaints about Irish soap 'Fair City', which last week was repeated 25 times on STV. This is at the expense of Scottish 'Take The High Road' now only on Saturdays.

Roads are increasingly dangerous for the equestrian community with ever increasing traffic and speeding vehicles. It has never been more important to provide safe, off road riding for those who enjoy hacking out in our areas of natural beauty. Most landowners are understanding of their legal obligations to keep bridleways free from obstruction and provide suitable gates to provide access. There are no formal routes for the current equestrian community to safeguard their current pastime and access is threatening the informal existence of routes currently followed due to the installation of barriers to reduce off road biking nuisance. The equestrian community are proud of their links with the non-riding community who also enjoy and share some of the routes used whether it be for cycling or walking and wish to ascertain everyone's safety in the process.

The recent threat to auction off some of Mossley's community spaces has revealed the urgency to gather support for these spaces, which once gone will never be replaced. Cosgrove Gardens, Greaves Street ( encompassing Mossley's community orchard and the car park at Cross Street ) were withdrawn from auction. Spring Street car park and gardens have also been withdrawn from auction and are in the process of being registered as a community asset. However, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council will be reviewing all of these sites in the near future due to ongoing austerity that the council is facing. We are continuing to oppose the future sale of these public spaces and to ask that they be permanently removed from the list of land for sale so that these spaces can be continued to be enjoyed by the Mossley community. If you are interested in joining SOCS and supporting this vital work (in any way small or large), or just keeping up with what’s happening in your town, please contact: [email protected] or via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/669414999916345/

We are 2 weeks into a 6-week (tokenistic) 'consultation' period to downgrade our Post Office in Finsbury Park. We have 4 weeks left to ramp up our response. The petition needs to reach 2000 signatures to trigger a debate in full Council Meeting. We all know that Crown Post Office provides important services that feed into the social and economic vitality of the area it serves. Our Post Office is under threat of being downsized into the corner of a store. Here are just a few reminders why we need to keep it viable and serving our community: 1. There is massive regeneration and development of Finsbury Park: our Post Office should be expanding rather than reduced within a franchise. 2. . Franchises depend on profit; franchise takeovers of Post Offices show a track record of low pay and conditions; high staff turnover; less experienced staff; long queues; people becoming irritated... 3. Big picture is that Crown Post Offices process 40% of financial services mail so are a crucial component of London’s economy. Track record of franchises is loss of experienced staff who are able to deal swiftly and efficiently with complex queries so business users suffer loss of time and money. 4. With a strategy of downgrading services, Post Office Limited’s own branding to serve the ‘heart of the community’ would appear to be a nonsense! Could those highly paid PO Ltd Board executives have signed up to such a policy without researching implications for Finsbury Park? We have massive development! Rapid population growth! Increasing demand! 5. A franchise will lose experienced staff who provide a patient, knowledgeable and polite service. Our PO is used by local businesses, hard-working families; small traders, disadvantaged and vulnerable individuals, (including people with issues of mild dementia; people whose first language is not English, people with disabilities, people with hearing or sight loss. 6. Finsbury Park Post Office serves an area of super-diversity. We need a commitment to promoting social cohesion. The strategic planning policy of National and local government (we have three bordering London boroughs - Hackney, Islington and Haringey) has made this commitment. Reducing Finsbury Park Post Office service by squeezing it into the corner of a store would undermine opportunities for social cohesion. 7. Downsizing to franchise of our PO would erode choice, limit access across our whole community, impact negatively on social cohesion and serve no-one's best interests. - KEEP FINSBURY PARK POST OFFICE VIABLE!

People like me were invited to the UK in 2009 to study for a MSc Physiotherapy well before the 35K salary threshold came into existence in 2016. The immigration rule at the time stated we were given 2 years’ visa (PSW) to find a permanent job and if we were able to find a permanent job, we were eligible for indefinite leave to remain if we completed 5 years in our permanent job and our employer still needed us. However, because of this new law, only those people who are earning more than £35,000 on a single contracted salary will be eligible to apply for leave to remain. This law will only discourage people to work for the public-sector organisations such as the NHS where achieving 35K salary within the first 5 years of employment is nearly impossible unless the employee is working in London. People like me who are working 7 days a week and earning well above 35K over the past 2 years with overtime will have to leave their permanent senior physiotherapist NHS job and move to the private sector to fulfil this salary threshold. After the Royal College of Nursing highlighted the impact of this law on the nurses staffing level the Home Office have exempted all nurses from this law however, other important professions such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, many doctors, IT professionals and many engineers are not exempted. We do respect the government’s idea of training UK citizens but they must understand that training them takes time and needs senior staff to train them. Due to our job role, we now provide clinical education to university students and juniors. Also, moving trained people like us from Birmingham to London/private sector will have no impact on immigration however it will only cost money to the NHS to employ more locum staff. The Charted Society of Physiotherapy argues that 500 additional physiotherapists are needed UK-wide each year up to 2020 to meet the demand, with services already facing supply shortages. In the year 2015, Health Education England, a government body, cut the number of physiotherapy training places in England alone by 6.2 per cent, 95 fewer places than the previous year. There were just 1448 NHS-funded training places for the 2016/17 intake. Also due to NHS bursaries cuts and 14% pay cuts to the NHS employees in real terms, less people will be inclined towards health professional courses hence it will be a wise decision to bring the threshold to 28K (average UK salary) so that the Tier 2 visa holders who are already working will be able to continue their work in the UK. We started a petition earlier on this issue #anand35k which gained lot of popularity and 13,346 signatures but due to the general election, our deadline was brought forward by 9 weeks and we had to stop our campaign. I have had various BBC radio, news agencies interview but my most popular one was the BBC Midlands interview which had 338K views in 1 week on their Facebook page. https://youtu.be/w8BYaeKMEEA I personally feel that this law is disrespecting the service we have provided by working 7 days a week, paying our taxes, national insurance, NHS surcharge (only paid by non-EU nationals) and I have never claimed any benefit. I hope we win this time otherwise the NHS and many big companies will be losing experienced trained staff. It will not do justice to the employers who have spent so much money on our training and it will be an injustice to the people who have made their home in the city they are living in.

Aida Emilianna Safari, aged 53, is here in the UK to escape from political persecution in the Congo (DRC). She was a propagandist against Joseph Kabila and was imprisoned from 2005-2006 until her murdered husband’s political allies arranged for her successful escape from prison in 2006. She has been in the UK since 2006. She is now on her fourth lawyer who is acting pro bono to secure her release. In the meantime, on 17 December 2016 Aida’s older sister and nephew were killed in a grenade attack. Joseph Kabila’s reign of terror continues. Aida cannot return home to a country that has already falsely imprisoned her for being part of the opposition to a brutal government.

We believe that Brookfield campus is not fit for the purpose of locating the School of Business: it will undermine teaching and research, and damage the student experience. The reasons for this are manifold, as voiced on many occasions by numerous members of School staff in various fora. These include: • Substantial physical and practical ‘distancing’ of ULSB academic and other student-facing staff from the students’, whose primary base will remain the main campus. • Negligible teaching space and learning facilities for approximately 5,000 campus-based ULSB students despite NSS data showing students prioritise these over new buildings*. • Worsens students' access to tutors as it discourages them from choosing their stated preference for face-to-face contact**. • Planned shared offices for most academic staff is not conducive to undertaking quiet research activities, student supervision and confidential meetings. • Alternative ‘break-out’ accommodation is inadequate and insufficient for ad hoc and confidential meetings. • Staff and students with mobility restrictions are disproportionately penalized by the distance and journey-time between the main campus and Brookfield. • Personal safety concerns associated with crossing Victoria Park after dark. • The lack of a convenient and safe pedestrian crossing of London Road en route from the main campus. • Considerable risk of unpleasant and uncomfortable weather conditions during the 15 to 20-minute walk from main campus. We believe that if ULSB relocates to the Brookfield campus there will be a significant negative impact on the School’s NSS score, and its performance in the TEF and REF will be undermined. Regardless of the many valid criticisms of these performance measures and their uses, they remain the primary benchmarks used by prospective students and external stakeholders to evaluate the School and University. We believe the success of students and staff are bound to one another because “(t)eachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions”, as expressed by Diane Ravitch, Historian and Research Professor of Education. With compromised research and teaching conditions and a poor location, we are not able as a School to succeed together. Despite the Brookfield move being at an advanced stage of planning, we understand there has not been any consultation with the Leicester University Students Union (LUSU), let alone the three staff trade unions, UCU, Unite, and Unison. In addition, the views of current ULSB students have not been canvassed, which is astonishing given the current first-year cohort will be in their final year at the time of the planned move in 2019/18 - and will be NSS respondents in 2019. We call on the Provost and ULT to halt the current plans for relocating ULSB to Brookfield and instead work with staff and students to find a suitable alternative that will allow the School to thrive and expand in a location with facilities that enhance the student experience and provides the best possible working conditions for pursuing scholarly activity, as befits a research-intensive university. ________________________________________________________ CITED RESEARCH * Universities UK (2016) http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2016/student-experience-measuring-expectations-and-outcomes.pdf ** HEPI-HEA (2016) http://www.hepi.ac.uk/2016/06/09/hepi-hea-2016-student-academic-experience-survey/

All residents of Harcombe valley, Lyme Regis, Uplyme, Charmouth and Axminster will have to deal with: Sound pollution - the field is on top of a valley and sound carries very clearly, driven by breezes from the coast. 30 lorries with reversing beepers and a bulldozer up there 6 days a week will impact everyone who lives in the valley considerably. Traffic - traffic in our area already reaches congestion levels during peak periods and holiday times. Traffic into and out of Lyme Regis can become untenable. Lorries are advised to go via Charmouth roundabout but we have no faith that there will be adequate policing of this stipulation. Dust/Mud: this scale of delivery of material and waste will result in mud trails being left on the A3052 which is the main route into and out of Lyme Regis on the East side. If the weather is warm and dry, we can only imagine the scale of dust that will be generated, dust that will blow directly across the valley over nearby residents. Land slippage: it has been assessed that in order for this scheme to achieve its stated aims: ‘to level up the playing surface of this driving range’ – parts of the bottom edge of the field in question may well be raised 20-30 feet. This is a very large quantity of material on a significantly steep slope. Since there was a well-known major land slip in the field literally next door to this some years back, it seems entirely justified to have deep concerns about the safety of this scheme – especially for those living underneath it. RUN-OFF – despite all claims that the material being dumped here will be inert and completely harmless, there are plenty of precedents that can be found to show similar dumping schemes can let their standards slide. Before anyone has noticed unwelcome material is being included.. ..and the resulting run-off after rain, affects the grazing nearby, and the stream which is exactly beneath this site. Who will be policing this aspect? AONB – it hardly needs stating that this area is universally noted for its peace and beauty. We only have to witness the huge numbers of people who travel from far and wide to visit the charming town of Lyme Regis and the coast around it, at all times of the year. Does it seem in any way sensible to carve up a large field right next to one of the main arteries to this stretch of coast, and have an unending stream of huge, noisy lorries dumping waste into it 5 years? GENERAL We believe that this site has previously had an application made to provide shelter and floodlighting for the Driving Range. This was apparently denied because of the light pollution it would cause to residents across the valley. I’m sure we’re all grateful that it was denied.. ..but this adds to the amazement that a certain amount of silent lighting would be denied, and yet an unending disruption of trucks, bulldozing, dust, mud, noise and traffic should even be considered appropriate! Overall, even if your decision turns out to approve a scheme that only benefits the proposers, we have very little faith that all the various aspects that will need constant monitoring during the proposed period, will be sufficiently monitored. Please visit this site and take a good, long look at its negative impact on a large number of people in this area, before you decide to condemn us to years of disruption. The residents of Harcombe valley, Uplyme, Lyme Regis, Charmouth and Axminster

The British government and the international community has yet to call the situation in Chechnya what it is: Genocide. The Chechen government is rounding up, torturing and murdering gay men. Their families are being given an ultimatum: murder your relatives or state enforcers will. The media is a powerful force in British civic life and forms the strongest voice in setting the political agenda. We urge you, as editors of our country's dominant media platforms, to ensure that the genocide of gay men in Chechnya becomes a front page issue in Britain. Only then will politicians give the issue the attention it deserves. The General Election allows an opportunity to bring this issue to the front pages at a time when politicians are especially susceptible to headlines. Please understand the huge significance of the power you wield as agenda setters in the United Kingdom. Innocent people are being tortured and murdered and you have the power to stop it. I urge you to embrace the media's power to affect the agenda to save the lives of those desperately in need - before it's too late.