Our homes and businesses here in the Calder Valley, just as in many areas of the United Kingdom, flooded on Boxing Day 2015 and again in the last two weeks (February 2020) due to Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis. Many of us have lost what was replaced or salvaged last time when any flood measures put in place by the Government since 2015 proved wholly insufficient. To be honest, it has been devastating to lose so much again. The community always rallies together and helps each other but the Government does not do enough. We have been suffering through flood defence works totalling £32m since Spring 2016 - what with air pollution, earth works damaging buildings that were already flooded, noise pollution, never-ending traffic jams, building works 6 days a week and through the night - and that still hasn't completed for the one village that has gone through it. The scheme has yet to progress to other towns flooded on Boxing Day 2015 and, in the case of Elland, they are due to get no flood defences at all because the Environment Agency said it was not cost-effective. To refuse to give flood resilience grants to those who have been flooded, whose homes have not been protected despite the millions paid by the Government to private contractors, is beyond heartless. Many of us have struggled to get insurance at all, despite Government promises and the Flood Re scheme, and those of us who do have incredibly high premiums that local emergency grants simply don't cover. Most of us who flooded this time flooded last time as the costly flood defence works were both incomplete and actually left us further exposed due to flood walls that were overtopped in 2015 being taken down by the Government contractors VBA and not replaced, due to works not having been done throughout the valley and due to the Environment Agency's own planning deeming certain areas sacrificial and not cost-effective to protect. In the recent Statement on Flooding in Parliament, on being pressed by Halifax MP Holly Lynch, the Government said the recently announced flood resilience grants - intended to help properties become more resilient to future floods - would not be available for those who flooded last time and who therefore received a grant. The £5,000 is a blanket amount irrespective of how inundated properties were so those who had a foot of water in their cellar received exactly the same grant as those whose homes were flooded all through. Depending on your property and how the water gets in, the grant would cover the average cost of 2 flood doors and frames which is £4,000. A sump pump in the cellar might cost you £1250/£1500 but it would only work for as long as there was working electricity. Part of the grant had to be spent on approved surveyors carrying out a Flood Mitigation Report. Our flood mitigation report identified necessary measures costing over 3 times the £5,000 grant and even then, it said, "Due to the location of the building, flood remediation measures will not totally prevent flooding in the future, but if properly implemented may reduce the incidence of flooding by slowing or preventing water entering the property, reduce damage and loss should flooding occur, and allow faster recovery from flooding in the future." Even spending that money did not stop us being flooded to the same degree, only this time the main points of water ingress were through new points of weakness created by works done to the neighbouring property by the Government contractors VBA. Arguably, the only owners of homes and businesses who didn't receive a grant last time and who are therefore eligible this time are those who didn't own that home or business last time. Many of those bought those properties at knockdown prices precisely because of the Boxing Day 2015 flooding devaluing and damaging properties; in some cases, they also benefited from works carried out by the Government contractors.

The GP out of hours service in Inverclyde has been under pressure for some time with regular closures. This means that patients routinely have to travel to Paisley or Glasgow for treatment overnight. This puts patients at risk and for many in Inverclyde means a journey of over 20 miles just to see a GP. These changes come amid warnings of further service cuts at Inverclyde Royal Hospital and many trauma services also being moved to Paisley and Glasgow. Inverclyde needs a fully functioning health service and, at the very least, that means a full GP service.

Itis important because the living wage in the UK is more than the government pension, We are one of the richest countries in the world as such we should take care of the people who helped build this country.

Fitness improves the overall wellbeing in our teenagers, both mentally and physically, at a time when they need it most. Being a teenager isn’t easy and there are very few adults who would wish to return this age. They are not all rascals, which our press would have us believe. The rascals are in fact the minority. Our community and the facilities within should be encouraging health and fitness. My daughter has been invited to help start a volleyball team at school. She is also a dancer, who aims to teach professionally. She wanted to improve her fitness and so came lane swimming with me. She was asked to leave by the facilities assistant manager due to being “underage”. Not based on ability just on age. She has now joined a gym, who took her money for a membership but when she arrived after school she was told she couldn’t visit without an accompanying adult. We have all read the reports of an increasing number of teenagers suffering from mental health issues, particularly depression, and teenagers addicted to computer games. Exercise helps regulate hormones, improves moodswings, and reduces the risk of mental health issues. Teenagers who have the interest and want to exercise should be encouraged to do so. It keeps them away from the risks and temptations that are ever present on the streets and also steers them away from the bombardment of social media. Surely these facilities should have a responsibility to promote and encourage exercise in our youth. It would just need the simple solution and low cost of providing supervision for 2 or 3 hours after school hours. Please give your support to help encourage these facilities to promote the health and wellbeing, that they market themselves on, to our youth. Health & wellbeing does not just apply to adults.

Catastrophic flooding is rapidly increasing due to climate change. Building defences & piling up sandbags is a short term measure that does nothing to tackle the cause, & reducing carbon emissions, however fast we might do it, is too slow a process to help people being flooded now. But reforesting catchment areas can do both things at once. Many of our uplands are kept as short grass or grouse moor, because its been profitable for landowners to do so. Rain that falls on these areas runs very quickly down to the lowlands, all at once. But trees, & their roots & associated fungi & microorganisms, soak up water & slow its passage, reducing peak flood levels & making rivers flow more evenly. And planting trees also soaks up the carbon dioxide thats causing the problem, as well as healing our damaged local ecosystems. Trees aren't incompatible with farming, but crops are different, & yields may be lower, so landowners need help & encouragement to make the change. This isn't an alternative to flood barriers, or reducing emissions. Its one of several things we need to do all at once to clear up the mess we've created- & we can do it, with the right legislation, without anyone having to sacrifice anything & with good results visible in just a few years!

The homes of the people of the UK are far more important than a vanity project to build a whole new line to cut travel time when the infrastructure already exists to do this. The Great Central Railway was closed in the 1960s and has the capacity to take high speed trains. It survives almost totally intact and would serve the same purpose as HS2 at a fraction of the cost. ‘ Re-opening The Great Central Railway fulfils all the main objectives of HS2 without the excruciating cost, the environmental objections and absurdities of the latter project.‘ https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/08/there-is-a-far-better-option-than-hs2-and-it-already-exists/ People are suffering and putting the money saved from a ridiculously inappropriate vanity project into flood defences will save livelihoods and protect our communities.

This is important because people are easily misled into buying the same produce for an increased price, unless they have weighing scales close by, and the time to calculate the true values. It’s just another form of daylight robbery by deception that doesn’t have a place in a developed society.

We would like Essex County Council to know that the people of Colchester are desperate to address the air quality and traffic problem in the town - but we need to give people a clean, effective and affordable alternative to car travel and this can be it. Please put all of your effort into making this happen! We know how dangerous and damaging to people's lives and health poor air quality is. Clean Air Colchester is a hub of general and local information about how air quality affects us all right here in Colchester - https://www.cleanaircolchester.org Why Colchester? Our town would be a perfect place to set up this scheme. We have a very active community made up of many groups and individuals who are very concerned about our residents' health as well as our environment and have been campaigning for better air quality and traffic solution for a long time. Colchester Borough Council is also currently implementing a DEFRA-funded awareness raising and behaviour change project (the only one in the country), awarded as a result of the obvious need and interest locally. Should Colchester be chosen for this scheme, the impacts and transformative effects could be recorded through testing and video testimonies recorded by local filmmakers and campaigners to show the positive impact that moving from polluting buses to an electric system can have. As the oldest Roman town in Britain, Colchester has many narrow roads in the town centre. The buildings flank our roads to form a canyon-like environment which can trap air pollutants, meaning that pedestrians, residents and road users end up breathing in dangerous levels of air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and fine particulate matter. There are four areas in Colchester that exceed established air quality objectives. Testing shows air pollution levels in excess of legal limits (40 mg/m3). As the town is developed and spreads at an unprecedented rate, we need clean public transport options to replace the dirty old buses that currently belch out toxic pollution. Please put Colchester forward for this scheme and help us to transform our beautiful town and inspire national change!

It is cruel for humans to have to suffer illnesses and diseases with no say for their end of life, families are put under extreme pressure and grief totally unnecessarily. For humans to still be doing this to each other and being punished for helping to end misery is a shameful state of affairs. A recognised, registered chaperone to accompany euthanasia life ender's legally to their place of choosing needs to be made legal. For the sake of us now and in the future, for the benefit of our loved ones and those yet to come after us. For us to be held accountable for the choices that are ours to make, to allow us all to evolve to a higher level of awareness and grace.

There have been numerous reports detailing the link between poverty and lower attainment in numeracy and literacy. The role of a Children’s Laureate is ultimately to engage all children in reading and writing. My proposal would be to take this a stage further in Scotland by identifying those children from low income backgrounds and those with disabilities (physical and mental) and placing more emphasis on reaching children within these groups.

It's part of the very fabric of Leigh on Sea and the community hold many great memories of this amazing building in its heyday. Partially listed and really striking it towers over its neighbouring buildings. Wetherspoons have a number of great and interesting buildings within their chain and hopefully the weight of local support will encourage them to look at saving this iconic part of Leigh on Sea.

As a country, we have high standards, in particular to the safety of food products and safety standards, and we should not lower our standards simply to secure a trade deal. This is a backward step and we firmly believe that if a country wishes to trade with us they should raise their standards to meet ours. This ensures that the British public can still have faith in the quality and hygiene standards of the food they eat and the products they buy here in the UK.