On Thursday 26th Jan, South Devon and Torbay CCG will decide whether to close four cottage hospitals - Dartmouth, Paignton, Ashburton April this year. At a time when the NHS is desperately short of beds, these decision are perverse The Community hospital beds could be put to full use for looking after patients being discharged from major hospital units in the county where there are no immediate alternative arrangements for care in the community. The proposal to cut the 32 acute beds is dangerous and completely detrimental to the people of South Devon

The service is used by many, many people on a daily basis for both work and leisure. There is no current or planned alternative source of this information in one place. BBC claims it will save just part of a total saving of £15m per year by cutting this public service.

Between August 2012 and January 2016 Amey the Council contractor felled over 3500 trees across Sheffield. Now they are planning to chop down many of our local street trees. While some of these trees are near the end of their life and should be replaced, many others are mature healthy trees that help to keep the air clean (1), protect our homes from flooding (2) and provide a habitat for local wildlife (3), as well as making our streets nicer and healthier places to live (4). Mature trees are particularly good at filtering out pollution (5), cooling the air in summer (6) and maintaining nature's delicate balance (7). Four of the trees are said to be damaging the pavement and are therefore discriminatory to disabled people and those using pushchairs. We believe the damage is minor and does not significantly impair accessibility for disabled people, or the use of prams and pushchairs. Sensitive engineering solutions (8), such as use of flexi-pave and/or pavement restructuring and localized remediation near trees, with kerb stones sculpted to accommodate root morphology, would represent a sustainable solution to perceived problems. The other trees are said to be diseased or dangerous. Our independent ecologist says with sensible management the above 11 trees will thrive for many years and should definitely be saved. The Council carried out a survey of households to see if people wanted to save the trees. This was deeply flawed as many houses and in some cases whole streets were missed out. References (1) Karl, T., Harley, P., Emmons, L., Thornton, B., Guenther, A., Basu, C., & Jardine, K. (2010). Efficient atmospheric cleansing of oxidized organic trace gases by vegetation. Science, 330(6005), 816-819.http://www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6005/816.short Escobedo, F., Kroeger, T. & Wagner, J. (2011). Urban forests and pollution mitigation: analyzing ecosystem services and disservices. Environmental Pollution, Volume 159, pp. 2078-2087.http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?cluster=14928633190131047233&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 (2) Trees and Design Action Group (2012). Trees in the Townscape: A Guide for Decision Makers, s.l.: Trees and Design Action Group.http://www.tdag.org.uk/trees-in-the-townscape.html Construction Industry Research and Information Association, 2013. CIRIA Research Project RP993: Demonstrating the multiple benefits of SuDS – A business case (Phase 2). Draft Literature Review. [Online] Available at: http://www.susdrain.org [Accessed 25 May 2015].http://www.susdrain.org/files/resources/ciria_guidance/ciria_rp993_literature_review_october_2013_.pdf (3) Ewers, R. M., & Didham, R. K. (2006). Confounding factors in the detection of species responses to habitat fragmentation. Biological Reviews, 81(01), p. 117-142. http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?cluster=1003233194462145743&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 Gilbert‐Norton, L., Wilson, R., Stevens, J. R., & Beard, K. H. (2010). A Meta‐Analytic Review of Corridor Effectiveness. Conservation Biology, 24(3), p. 660-668. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01450.x/full (4)Sarajevs, V. (2011). Health Benefits of Street Trees, Farnham: Forest Research. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fr/INFD-8JCEJH Williams, K., O'Brien, L. & Stewart, A.. (2013). Urban health and urban forestry: how can forest management agencies help?. Arboricultural Journal: The International Journal of Urban Forestry, Volume 35, pp. 119-133.http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03071375.2013.852358 (4) Shackell, A. & Walter, R. (2012). Greenspace Design For Health And Well-being, Edinburgh: Forestry Commission.http://www.forestry.gov.uk/PDF/FCPG019.pdf/$FILE/FCPG019.pdf Velarde, M., Fry, G. & Tveit, M. (2007). Health effects of viewing landscapes – Landscape types in environmental psychology. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Volume 6, p. 199-212.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1618866707000416 (6) Forestry Commission (2011). The UK Forestry Standard: The governments’ approach to sustainable forest management. 3rd ed. Edinburgh: Forestry Commission. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/ukfs (7) Gonzalez, A., Rayfield, B., & Lindo, Z. (2011). The disentangled bank: how loss of habitat fragments and disassembles ecological networks. American Journal of Botany, 98(3), p. 503-516.http://www.amjbot.org/content/98/3/503.full (8) Trees and Design Action Group. (2014) Trees in Hard Landscapes: A Guide for Delivery. TDAG http://www.tdag.org.uk/trees-in-hard-landscapes.html To find out more visit Save Norfolk Park Trees on Facebook.

Routes, a project run by Mendip YMCA which provides information, advice, guidance and advocacy for young people aged 11 to 25 in crisis in the town, is a vital service for our community and will close at the end of March this year unless it can find funding to continue. At a time when homelessness is rising and the availability of affordable accommodation is fast disappearing in Frome it seems inconceivable that a service such as Routes is in imminent danger of closure; but it is.

Midwifery is a separate role from nursing. Both professions are unique in every way, from character of the role, all the way back to preregistration study. Midwives have a completely different way of working and totally different responsibilities. This has meant that an individual arrangement has always been necessary to ensure public safety, public health, support of women's choice and, of course, promoting the health of generations to come. The NMC have, in one fell swoop, and ignoring the results of their own consultation, removed supervision, removed the need for a midwifery committee and declared that independent midwives have inadequate insurance to provide intrapartum (birth) care for their clients. If an independent midwife has provided antenatal care, she may not now provide intrapartum care. If she attends the birth, the NMC have stated she will be struck off the register. This action has resulted in many women suddenly being faced with the loss of the intimate and trusting relationship they have developed with their midwife. There is unlimited research proving that this model of care is the gold standard. The long term implications for the mental and emotional health of all those affected will be enormous. Any stress during pregnancy has the potential to affect fetal neurological development and maternal attachment and bonding. Far from protecting the public, this decision is creating serious emotional and financial harm to women (including midwives) and their families. In summary, the ultimate outcome of this action will lead to the downgrading of midwifery as a profession. This will result in a much higher level of maternal and infant death. (Look at the USA where midwifery has often been outlawed). Act now to save midwifery before it is too late.

Safety on the school run!

This is the last bank in our town of Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire. A branch in the adjoining town of Dollar already closed. Customers would need to travel either to Stirling, or Falkirk, or use online banking. Our argument is that a good number of elderly customers(and maybe some younger) who use this branch have no knowledge of using a computer far less online banking. Many will not be able to use buses to these towns, or have family convenient to drive them to the other branches. We do not want this branch to close.

O'Donoghues is a true community pub in the heart of Marlow. It's the only pub in the town that doesn't serve food, that shows a wide array of sports and appeals to a variety of (adult) ages. We think the proposed plans will remove the community aspect of the pub, and transform it into a gastropub like the others we have in the area. Currently, it is a quintessential British boozer that is a favourite, not just amongst locals, but also the friends we have brought here. Countless relationships have been made in this pub and all the regular patrons (of which there are many) are saddened and disappointed at the proposal to fundamentally change what makes our pub so special. We understand that the pub needs to make profit, but surely there is a way to still make a profit whilst keeping the character, clientele and true essence of our local pub. Please support us.

It seems reasonable to ask for longer hours for local health centers - although mornings and early evenings would surely be adequate. A government that makes demands without considering the cost causes us a huge problem. I am a taxpayer, and am very happy to pay more to get adequate public services. I am certain that every tax-payer will be content to pay more in order to have adequate health care. BUT our local practice - and very likely many others - have already cut back their operation to the bone, to the point at which an further increase in running costs will have to mean a lack of attention to patients - essential home visits to patients who are unable to get to the surgery might be one possibility. Our own surgery runs a drop-in every weekday morning. Two excellent nurse-practitioners and one doctor are in attendance. All of them make home visits after morning drop-in. Extra staff to cover extra hours will cost money the surgery does not have.

This will enable parents and grandparents to have access to children when parental relationships breakdown. This will reduce the emotional harm done to children when they are prevented from seeing their family members. They will not feel abandoned. It will reduce the conflict between adults who need support to understand the affect their behaviour has on a child. This will make conciliation affordable to all.

The Plantation Gardens are a Grade II English Heritage registered garden of national importance. A major part of Norfolk's heritage and history is involved with the gardens and we must fight to stop it's forced and unfair closure. The head of MJB hotels who owns all the paths into the gardens is set close them on the 27th of January! The Plantation Garden Trust have a permanent legal right of access to the gardens. So please sign the petition to make sure everyone can continue to enjoy this beauty spot.

The former vicarage is of special architectural and historic interest; it contributes to a group of important listed buildings (all by the same designer) at the heart of a conservation area. Although heavily vandalised (caused by neglect and poor security over many years), the listed building is capable of rehabilitation, adaptation and extension to form multiple dwellings. Lost interior details can by copied from Austin's own 1875 home, The Knoll, in Lancaster. To pay for the scheme, additional houses can be built in the vicarage gardens in such a way as to open up the views to the west end of the Grade I listed church, save the south lawn, and better use the listed boundary wall and gates. The counter proposal to demolition is more sustainable, sympathetic to the site and enhances a forlorn and abandoned heritage asset.