Public services are being cut back to the bone due to the political choice of austerity, playgrounds and sports facilities are being closed, the NHS is under attack, community groups, the disabled and vulnerable face all sorts of challenges from closures and budget cuts – this decision is an utter disgrace.

For months, Leedale lorries have been going into the Brierley Forest Golf Club in Huthwaite, Notts, tipping loads of waste soil and rubble for redevelopment and then coming out and spreading muck all over the local roads (Main Street and Common Road), causing the roads to be dirty, filthy and slippery. There has been a lot of cars skidding. Peoples clothing, cars and houses have been getting covered in dirty spray coming off the roads. The lorries have also had a lot of stones, gravel and large chunks of rock and soil dropping off their loads, causing danger to road users and pedestrians, chipping paintwork on cars, flicking up at passer by's and also blocking drains. The safety of our children has been affected (the conditions of the roads outside the schools) The lorries have been parking on the pavements on Main street and restricting view of the pedestrians crossing the road, making it less safe. The lorry drivers have been reported to have bad road manners and attitude, speeding, pulling out in front of people and generally not having very good ettiquette. The people of Huthwaite and even residents of Sutton-in-Ashfield who go through Huthwaite via the common road - have all had enough. There has been numerous complaints to the golf club owners, to Leedale, to Ashfield District Council, to the local Police, to the Highways Agency. Nothing seems to be done. People have protested. There's an outrage on social media. Some people have tried to block the road to stop the lorries from passing and got arrested. Nothing seems to change. Enough is enough! Time to clean up your act!!

A later service leaving Aberdeen around 2345 would allow the residents of Laurencekirk and the surrounding area to go into Aberdeen and make use of the cinema, theatre or even just a nice leisurely meal with friends without the expense of a taxi costing around £80!

Rawhide chews for dogs are full of dangerous chemicals and not only pose a choking hazard but in some cases have even resulted in death. “Producing rawhide begins with the splitting of an animal hide, usually from cattle. The top grain is generally tanned and made into leather products, while the inner portion, in its “raw” state, goes to the dogs.” TheBark.com. This means that contrary to popular belief, a rawhide chew is not the by-product of the beef industry nor is it made of dehydrated meat. Rather, rawhide is the by-product of the “Leather Industry” If you use an online search engine to look at how rawhide chews are made, you can see the process including all of the chemicals, dyes and glue that are used, yet these are still considered safe to give to our dogs! Look a little further and you will find 1000's of stories of dogs choking on these treats or becoming seriously ill as their body is affected by the poisonous chemicals, too many of these cases have resulted in the death of a dog. There are many alternatives to rawhide so there is absolutely no reason for this toxic product to be on sale in the UK as a treat for dogs.

Halton Borough Council controls two towns, Runcorn and Widnes. Every Remembrance Sunday the Council hold a Remembrance service in Widnes at 11 am. But in Runcorn it's 3 pm. They refuse a 11 am Remembrance silence in Runcorn. This is an insult to those who gave their all for our Country. Runcorn must be the only place in the UK on Remembrance Sunday when the Remembrance silence is held at 3 pm and not 11 am when the guns fell silent. This is an insult to those who gave their all for our freedom. Halton Borough Council should be made to stand

Hylands Park is a beautiful little park in Havering where people walk their dogs, children of all ages play tennis, football, basketball, local school pupils go there to say goodbye to their friends on the last day of term and where cricket is played during the summer months. A developer has bought a house with a long garden that runs behind the cricket nets in the park. This garden used to be filled with thick, strong trees that were taller than my house (on the other side of this garden) and must have stood there for decades. These trees formed a boundary between the park and the housing estate behind it, as well as being part of the stunning backdrop of the park. When the developer tore them down it was as though someone had taken a knife and slashed holes in a beautiful painting. He now wants to compound the eyesore he has created by putting a block of flats in this garden. If this development is allowed to go ahead, it would lead down a slippery road where more and more buildings are allowed to encroach on our green open spaces. This is an issue that affects everyone that cares about their local parks and communities.

This service engages children, young people and families with lived experience, to improve health services. It gives us a voice, that we otherwise wouldn't have. Our thoughts and opinions are listened to, discussed, and acted upon to turn our often difficult experiences into positives to change child and adolescent health services for the better. It puts the service users at the heart of shaping services throughout the whole of the Child Community Health Partnership here in Bristol and South Glos, and allows medical staff and young people to come together and be a team. Many of us were referred to this service whilst incredibly vulnerable, having missed out on key parts of pre adult life due to illness or disability. Slowly, taking into account our own abilities and needs, this wonderful team of staff encourage us to find our voice. The sense of pride, empowerment, and achievement this process instills is second to none. The Bristol CCG is planning to axe this wonderful service by 75%. The majority of the staff team supporting the service users have been made redundant. This team of people really are one of a kind, and work tirelessly and enthusiastically to ensure our voices are heard, and our suggestions and opinions both positive and negative are acted upon. It is appalling that it has already been cut by 75%, and we may be at risk of losing it completely. I have been a young person engaging with this service for 5years. When I first arrived, I couldnt speak, was only well enough to leave the house for an hour a week, and having been housebound and often bedridden for the last 2years of my school education, had lost all sense of confidence and hope for my future. With the support and understanding of the NHS/ Barnardo's HYPE team, I have gained so many positive experiences, skills, friends, and so much confidence, that I have now given talks to 100 professionals at a time, on what it's like first hand to have mental and physical illnesses whilst at school, and what can help them to help children and young people in future. The feedback that me, and other young people gain from doing these talks, is incredible - to be given the support and platform to speak out and improve things for the future generation is down to the HYPE team. This is only a tiny aspect of the work we are involved in. Other opportunities we have, are to sit on recruitment panels for health workers, create artwork for hospitals and clinic spaces to make them more user friendly, work with different medical teams to provide information in the best and most accessible way to young people, and also work with the medical professionals in the partnership to bridge the gap between 'service users' and 'professionals' to let everyone be heard. I cannot fully explain how important this service is, and what a massive impact it has on the way the Bristol NHS works for children and young people. Without this service, many of us would have remained in desperate situations, and have continued our isolation and silence. By the huge reduction of this service, the commissioners are taking away our right to have support to find our voice, and make a difference to these services, as well as to ourselves and future young people. After hearing the government once again last week promise more funding for mental health services - it is even more disheartening to see this wonderful service working to improve those services, being axed. We do have a voice, and we DO matter. Please join us in challenging their decision.

The idea of fining those who already have so little, that they are forced to be out in the cold or ask for food and money is a cruel and heartless act. This is attacking vulnerable people and does not resolve the issues homeless people face. Other campaigns have successfully stopped other councils from imposing similar fines. You can read more on the plans here: Peterborough City Council: Public Spaces Protection Order Consultation: https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/council/consultations/public-spaces-protection-order-consultation-city-centre/ Peterborough City Council: Draft Public Space Protection Order: City Centre: https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/upload/www.peterborough.gov.uk/council/consultations/DRAFTPeterboroughCityCentre-PSPO.pdf

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.