• EBC must give Defiant Sports compensation, an alternative site and hold a public meeting re Fort Fun
    Defiant Sports are a Community Interest Company that provides fully inclusive access to a variety of sports regardless of ability or disability. They are a much loved and invaluable local service provider for many disabled and disadvantaged individuals, families and communities. This vital service is now under threat due to council actions. Those responsible need to be held to account and the people of Eastbourne need transparency over what is happening with the Fort Fun site and why the whole matter has been handled so appallingly via a public meeting. Just before Christmas 2023 Defiant Sports were told by Eastbourne Council that they would have to vacate the Fort Fun Site (a previously derelict amusement park located on Eastbourne Seafront). Yet just 12 months earlier the council had highly praised their plans for the site (which had the potential to make Eastbourne an attractive equal opportunities resort for disabled people) when they announced they were to be awarded a joint 5 year lease, along with Wingrove House. The group achieved this after a long and arduous bidding process where various local charities, not for profits and small enterprises had been encouraged to apply for the opportunity to develop the site and to submit plans of intent. The bidding process and criteria were unclear, the process was dragged out with deadlines moved and decisions continually delayed, some bidders only finding via Facebook that their bid would be rejected as they had asked for a long term lease and then discovered that the council only intended to award a short term 5 year lease. During the bidding process there was much disquiet on social media as to why the council was not looking for a major funder and questions were asked as to why only a short term lease was being offered. Councillor Robert Smart made it clear to some seafront groups this was because there was a chance that in the future the Eden Project might be interested in the site. This has been reinforced by his statement to the press this last week and in discussion with two constituents in a Meads conservative councillor surgery. When Council leader, David Tutt made the announcement that Defiant Sports would have the site, shortly before the local elections, he spoke glowingly about the plans they had put forward. Loretta and her team immediately started ploughing a load of resources and manpower into realising their vison for the site. The council failed to fulfil its duty to provide access to water or electricity or any planning permissions necessary for them to make any real headway despite frequent requests and the fact that these were based on the submission which had led to the council awarding them the lease in the first place. Without these permissions Defiant Sports could not apply for the grants which they had made clear to the council were necessary to realise their ambitions. Their hands were tied. Despite this they made a huge visible impact on the site, clearing much of the external structures, dismantling equipment and having much of the site waste, in the area allocated to them, removed. Amidst this process the council suddenly decided to change the area Defiant Sports had been allocated but in the ensuing months failed to define how they were going to do this - again leaving Defiant Sports unable to move forward. However much of the site had been visibly cleared by them. This was in stark contrast to Wingrove House, with whom they shared the site. Wingrove House had been awarded part of the site 6 months earlier than Defiant Sports with the, now retired, Councillors Burton and Tutt promising that their part of the site would be open by September 2022. Yet 18 months on and Wingrove House have not opened any part of their section of the site. However, despite all of this, the council have inexplicably announced that they are now awarding sole use of the site to Wingrove House and Defiant Sports are being forced to vacate it. Having focussed so much time and energy on this project - which it now appears the council had absolutely no intention of letting them realise - the group find themselves in financial difficulties and having to drastically reduce the services it offers. This abysmal near destruction of a small worthy community group that provides such a unique and necessary service to many local families, individuals and communities is reprehensible. The council need to be held to account for the total mismanagement of this process, reparation needs to be made to Defiant Sports and an alternative venue urgently found for them. Explanations also have to be given as to why Wingrove House now has sole use of the site and why does the site seem to be being reserved just in case the Eden Project want it in the vague future with no open, national tendering process. Please sign and demand the council: • compensate Defiant Sports for all the work they have done on the site over the last 12 months (estimated at £75k) • find them suitable alternative accommodation as a matter of urgency so they can restore some of their programme and support the disabled and disadvantaged in our community. • Request the council hold a public meeting with all the relevant councillors and officers there so we, the people of Eastbourne, can get some transparency over what the council's rationale was, what their intentions are, what it is that the Eden Project might have in mind, and open details over the results of the Eden Project feasibility study on which the council have spent £150k.
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    Created by Karey Whitmore
  • Ban Electroconvulsive Therapy
    It is imperative that we come together to especially advocate for the human right of choice in care and on behalf of those who have suffered the injurious torture and harmful after affects of; seizures, memory loss, loss of cognition, confusion and sickness. We ask that this procedure is discontinued.
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    Created by Gabrielle Bruckner
  • Strip Paula Vennels of her Post Office pension pot
    This is to send a clear message that there should be genuine punishment for those who cause others to suffer so much.
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    Created by Michael Fleming
  • Say thank you to Alan Bates vs The Post Office for his extreme tenacity and dedication.
    Alan Bates fully deserves recognition. Highlighting those who were and are the problem deserve likewise.
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    Created by Mike Potter
  • Strip Ed Davey of his Knighthood
    All the Politicians & Post Office executives conspired to cover up hundreds of wrongful prosecutions of Postmasters based on the flawed Horizon system. None of them have have ever been penalised in any way.
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    Created by Simon Wills
  • VAR Must Go!
    Football fans are agreed that VAR is a complete shambles and is wrecking our national game. It is time for action - let's get something done about it.
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    Created by William Edwards
  • Strip Ed Davey of his knghthood and ban from Paliament
    To get justice for all of those people wrongfully accused and convicted for something that they did not do.
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    Created by Cliff Evans
  • Female footballers funko pops
    To support the idea that women are good at sport, to say to the people who hate and doubt that they are enough. Finally recognise the ones who work so hard just to deal with abuse by people who are to stuck up to watch the game.
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    Created by Elizabeth marvelfan
  • West Berkshire getting rid of dog bins in local park
    It is important because local dog walkers will no where to put there dog waste
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    Created by Andrew Lenaghan
  • Install water refill stations in Sheffield
    Overall, UK consumers drink 2.5 million litres of bottled water a year. Just over half of the UK population, or 51%, drink bottled water once a week or more. 7.7 billion plastic bottles are bought across the UK each year, resulting in substantial amounts of single-use plastic waste. Research has found that more than 90% of bottled water brands contained microplastics. Single-use PET plastic water bottles take 400 years to decompose. Health professionals tell us that the increased consumption of sugary drinks by children and young people is a significant factor in the alarming rise of obesity and diabetes rates. Providing drinking water in parks and other places where children and young people play and congregate would be a great way to encourage hydration without damaging their health or the environment. Furthermore, single-use plastics cause deaths to 100,000 marine mammals and 1 million seabirds annually if these enter the waterways. Sheffield City Council can play their part and tackle the plastics crisis.
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    Created by Sheffield Action on Plastic
  • Scrap the lethal netting
    Because its tough enough surviving, and no bird should die trapped behind or in netting. Imagine the fear and thirst and hunger. There's no reason this can't be sorted humanely. It's so distressing to see birds dead, and a massive worry that you'll not be able to rescue a living one in time. I'm still upset by seeing this last year.
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    Created by Katherine H.
  • Save Potters Crouch Plantation!
    The proposal to extend the Centurian Golf Club will destroy precious woodland, and the countless ecological services it provides to both the local land, community and the unique biodiverse ecosystem it currently supports. This proposal actively defeats the principles of the ‘Sustainability and Climate Crisis Plan’ the Council itself has set out. The planning proposal from the golf course must be dismissed, and the land must be protected for future generations. UPDATE: We will be keeping this petition open and sending it to St Albans District Council and Hertfordshire County Council in due course - please keep sharing and circulating, and thank you so much for your support.
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    Created by Emma Owen