Hundreds of PATIENTS HAVE have been patient and tolerant awaiting long and hard for this new Purpose built Centre.Their hearts have been broken by the long delays and dragging of heels by the Scottish Borders Health Board.

In some areas, children's annual bus passes for September on wards are rising by a staggering 25%, for instance in Kent, a child's annual pass last year was at £200, this is now going to £250. Kent County Council also says it has to save £209 million over the next three years and so will increase the cost of its bus pass for 11 to 16-year-olds from £200 to £250 in September, a year after the price doubled from £100. The chairman of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People’s Board, David Simmonds, told Schools Week that financial pressures were forcing many councils to scale back to meet their legal obligations “rather than go far beyond that – which is what they did historically”. For children under 8, councils are obliged to provide transport for pupils living more than two miles from the nearest suitable school. For those aged between 8 and 16, the statutory duty is to provide transport for those living more than three miles away. In rural areas, councils had traditionally provided free transport, although it was not a legal duty. It's now being eroded because of yet more cuts. This is going to affect so many people all over the country with Kent County Council being hit with the steepest rises with the best explanation being due to cuts needed in a council letting down not only the most vulnerable but the many people that are working so hard just to pay the bills and put food on the table that will have to not only find money for uniform and school essentials but also £250. The only legal obligation being kept nationwide is that to provide free travel for the over 65's Free school travel for children will have huge positives. - Attendance will be higher - Congestion and traffic will be minimised - Less road related accidents to children who walk near schools due to less traffic. Examples of how this is promoted in councils that RECOGNISE that free school buss pass's are the way forward; LONDON Children under the age of 11 only need a 5-10 Zip Oyster photocard to travel free on Tube, DLR, London Overground, TfL Rail and some National Rail services if they: Travel without an adult Look older than 10 A 5-10 Zip Oyster photocard isn't needed for your child to travel free on buses and trams or to buy child-rate paper tickets. If you think your child doesn't need a 5-10 Zip Oyster photocard, find out more about travelling with children. Children aged over 10 years and 11 months and under 16 on 31 August can get an 11-15 Zip Oyster photocard to travel free on buses and trams, and child rate on Tube, DLR, London Overground, TfL Rail and most National Rail services in London. CITY OF BRADFORD "Where walking/cycling is not possible, please consider public transport before using the family car on the school run, public transport is miles better for the environment and cuts down on traffic and pollution. Many secondary school pupils travel to school by public transport and the journey to a new school is often the first step your child will take toward independent travel; Bus services provide a safe and reliable way to get to school. Instead of giving your child a lift all the way to school why not consider dropping off at a bus stop or train station so that your child can continue their journey by public transport with friends?" All pupils in full time education are entitled to purchase a weekly School Plus Metro Card or for those occasional bus users pay half fare on public transport; please contact Metro for more information. Bus services run to or close by many local secondary and primary schools. To find out which buses serve your school and get up to date information on school travel please visit the Generation M website. Bradford Council is committed to reducing car travel which is a major source of pollution and congestion around school gates and encourages schools to produce a School Travel Plan setting out their commitment to sustainable school travel. Please ask your headteacher for more information on your School's Travel Plan Your child needs you to show them the way to sustainability. Reduce your car use and improve their quality of life. PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE ~ Together We Can Make A Difference ~

People seeking asylum do not have permission to work in the UK. Unless they have their own savings – and many have used any resources they possess to get to safety – they are forced to rely on support provided by the Home Office. This consists of accommodation and, for a single adult, £5.28 per day to cover food, clothing, toiletries, travel, communication and all other necessities. This is simply too low to cover anybody’s basic needs, remembering that the living wage is £7.85 per hour! This forces asylum seekers to live in poverty and isolation. The plight of asylum families is somewhat better as children are given about £3 more per day (the actual amount depending upon the number of parents and children in a family). However, on 16th July 2015, the Government introduced a new statutory instrument that reduces support for all people seeking asylum to the single flat rate. This will substantially reduce the amount given to children seeking refugee protection, as the current supplement they receive will be removed. This is a devastating blow. The internationally recognised poverty threshold, or ‘poverty line’, is defined as living on less than 60% of the median UK household income. The Child Poverty Action Group has calculated this at £346 per week after housing costs for a couple with 2 children. The Government’s decision means an asylum couple with two children will soon be forced to live on £147.80 per week, 58% below the poverty threshold.

Without a car, many hundreds of people used to rely on the popular No 6 bus to do their shopping. Now, the bus routes involve long walks (carrying bags!). I thought Tamworth Council was SUPPOSED to be encouraging links between the shopping outlets and town centre NOT severing them!

Because the Tory government is happy to inflict so-called austerity on the poor people of this country, it's time they shared the burden. Those that lead from the front should do so by example, not by considering themselves to be exempt from the rules that apply to everybody else. For example the last Chief Executive of Essex County Council was on a £250k salary package.

The government's decision to withdraw the promised funding for ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) will have an impact on the most vulnerable adults and have huge consequences for individuals and local communities. The ESOL decisions really strike at the heart of where education is most needed and also represent a stand against equality, inclusion and integration. As a teacher whose service has just had £34,000 slashed from her ESOL budget with only 2 weeks' notice, on top of the additional 3.9% cut made in the July budget on the Adult Skills budget which was as well as the 24% already announced in March, I find it more difficult and almost beyond my reach to deliver to those who are most vulnerable and in desperate need of English tuition. In July, Cameron said that the 'failures of integration' foster extremism and that the Casey Review "will look at issues like how we can ensure people learn English." Telling people they must integrate whilst removing their access to the language is like locking a bird in a cage then exhorting it to fly. The next day, a letter to the FE sector from the Skills Funding Agency revealed that the body would withdraw funding for ESOL programmes for Jobseeker's Allowance claimants with poor spoken English. This comes on the back of severe prior cuts to ESOL funding since 2011. These hits will have a detrimental impact on these individuals' ability to communicate and integrate within our society and local communities and have dire consequences for our students. We call on Louise Casey to consider the impact of these cuts when writing her review into improving the integration of Britain's minorities.

Are you aware that the public toilets in the new Beeston transport Interchange are temporarily closed, and that Broxtowe Borough Council is reviewing the provision of public toilets in Eastwood, Stapleford, Kimberley, Broadgate and Beeston? One possible outcome of this review is that there may be no public toilets across the Borough as a means of saving money. Local residents, shoppers, travellers and visitors to the Borough, need access to appropriate public toilets in the right location and should not have to rely on private provision. The tram is bringing more people into the Borough and they need access to public toilets.

It has never been deemed safe. If it went wrong about 30 thousand people could be seriously injured or worse. The environment will be affected. Compulsory purchase will happen. More heavy traffic on very small roads. It won't create lots of jobs but a lot of rural jobs could be lost. We will be sitting on a time bomb. Protect Wyre Group Facebook page is a good place to find out more in depth information and their website. http://www.pwgroup.org.uk They got together 13 years ago. A public inquiry in 2006 refused the plans. So Halite modified and resubmitted. Locals objected for a number of reasons. ..These are just a few. Unsuitable Geology of Preesall Salt.Risk of underground leaks due to a massive fault which brings saltbed next to sandstone. Potential Well head explosion. Could be a new terrorist target. Ecological damage from discharge of brine. Destruction of countryside and wildlife. ..the danger and list goes on. Please sign this where ever you live. A little update. ..my two older sons live and work on a farm and they have just received their first letter from Halite gas about compulsory purchase. It will effect 3 of their fields and restrict a 4th field. ..and so it begins :(

Regardless of breed, type or appearance, any dog has the capability to cause serious harm to a human, and since the breed specific legislation came into effect, the number of dog bites in the UK has risen. Thousand of banned type dogs currently live in the UK, exempt or otherwise, and just like any other breed, the majority are family pets who have done nothing wrong, except they are judged for the way they look. In the UK, Pit Bulls are not recognised as a breed by the Kennel Club, and under the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act, it is illegal to own Pit Bull Terrier type dogs. The Association of Professional Dog Trainers states that any dog can be dangerous, irrelevant of its breed or physical features, and that this is normally caused by a lack of, or incorrect, training. The American Temperament Testing Society consistently ranks American Pit Bull Terriers in the top 5, above Collies and Golden Retrievers, in temperament tests.

The Dept for Energy and Climate Change has just unveiled sweeping plans to slash subsidies to solar power. They are proposing measures that include cutting aid to small-scale solar power installations, and ending subsidies for roof-top panels earlier than expected. Solar and wind energy installations of less than 5MW are supported by feed-in tariffs - schemes that pay producers a subsidy for the electricity they generate, plus a bonus for any electricity exported back to the national grid. Under the new proposals, the amount to be paid from next year will fall to 1.63p per kilowatt hour from a current level of 12.92p for a new residential solar system. This is a hugely short sighted move by the government and is devastating for Britain's solar sector which employs over 35,000 people. The Secretary of State herself has stated that the total cost this year of the solar RO was just £3 per household on energy bills. Ending support for solar power makes no sense at all. The energy market currently has a wide range of subsidies and tax allowances in place, across all the technologies – renewables, nuclear and gas - and not all of these are transparent when it comes to the consumer. They have made these announcements after the House of Commons has risen for the summer recess so proper scrutiny in Parliament will now not be possible until after the consultation deadline. The Welsh government is already concerned, a spokesperson said the plans have the "potential to put jobs and investment under threat by reducing subsidies to projects already in the pipeline". The government is deliberately over-exaggerating the impact of renewable energy on bills and the timing of this move on solar power could not be worse as it is nearly subsidy free. Greenpeace pointed out that the government's maximum additional spend on green technologies by 2018 would be approximately half of what it spends subsidising the coal industry. Other groups called the changes "absurd". "Of course the feed-in tariff should fall as solar becomes cheaper, but the government clearly plans to remove support entirely," said Alasdair Cameron from Friends of the Earth. "This is politically motivated, and will take away power from people and hand it back to big energy firms." “Cutting the subsidies now will see businesses go bust and investment dry up. Jobs will go and emissions will stay higher at a time when policies and funding should be in place to ensure quite the opposite,” said Daisy Sands, head of the energy campaign at Greenpeace. Ray Noble, owner, Solar BIPV Ltd and Solar Power Portal outstanding achievement award winner has commented: "The decision to stop supporting the fastest deploying energy generation technology seems like madness to me. Especially when you consider that we are short of electricity, that solar has the biggest support of the the population; yet at the same time still giving 2 ROCs to other technologies that are creating the largest drain on the budget. Seems like winners are not liked and losers are preferred! “Combined with the cuts to wind subsidies, it looks like the government is gearing up for a full frontal attack on the renewable energy sector in the autumn while still handing out billion-pound tax breaks for oil and gas industry … It’s no good David Cameron saying how important the climate talks in Paris are, if the chancellor simultaneously weakens any shred of credibility of a claim to the UK’s low carbon leadership.” Please sign the petition now to help save jobs in the UK and support our commitment tackling climate change.

We need to have a Party that fights for working class people. Not a party that capitulates to the Tories. An opposition party needs to be just that, Opposition.

Ref. Planning Application 14/02004 Hybrid Amended. Planning consultation is under way for the Pye-Blenheim Consortium to build a huge housing development at the edge of Woodstock, Oxfordshire. This development would effectively double the size of this historic town through a single planning application! It would destroy this beautiful and historic market town, ruin the surrounding countryside and devastate the local community. Join us now by signing this petition to show your objection to this super-sized development. Say no to the Pye-Blenheim Consortium and say yes to preserving the beautiful town of Woodstock! For more information please see: www.savewoodstock.org