There has been a free ferry running here for over 100 years and an established ferry service on the route since the 14th century, with mentions of one in the Doomsday Book. London has many traffic congestion problems, but the problems of the Woolwich Ferry are not it's own; it is an effective and much used (2,000,000+ journeys per year) piece of infrastructure in its own right. The problem of the Woolwich Ferry are in reality the problems of the Blackwall Tunnel and it is only when the Blackwall Tunnel fails that the area around the Woolwich Ferry becomes overly congested. To close one thing that works well because something else does not is evidence of poor strategic thinking. Even if a new bridge or tunnel are built as proposed by TFL, congestion is only going to increase year-on-year in East London. this means that the Woolwich ferry does not stop being relevant or strategically important, both as a crossing in it's own right or as an additional means of easing congestion when a single car or lorry (inevitibly and regularly) breaks down in the existing tunnel (or on a new bridge) and brings this part of the capital to gridlock. If East london actually needs additional crossing capacity, why dispense with this vital piece of existing infrastructure? There is a historic precident for the Woolwich Ferry and currently TFL has an obligation to provide this service. This obligation should remain for the benefit of both vehicular and pedestrian transport, the latter of which would be severely disrupted by the provision of vehicle only crossing points. Furthermore the obligation to continue the service is important because a FREE ferry service is the only egaliarian means of river transport in East London- it's dissapearance would mean that all traffic on the river would become a privatised, fee paying entity. In an area which has so much maritime heritage, this you be a tragic development and a loss to future generations.

This is the most high profile pre-election event taking place in the Stroud constituency; and has a huge potential impact on the decisions listeners to the programme will take at the ballot box. Just as it was essential to have all seven candidates represented at the national debate. It's vital that all six candidates for the Stroud constituency are represented at this event. As is happening at many of the other equivalent BBC events around the country. By not giving all candidates the same platform the BBC are undermining the fairness of the election in Stroud.

The government has already issued Petroleum Exploration and Development Licenses to fracking companies. These licenses cover the whole area surrounding Chew Magna and the reservoirs which provide Bristol’s water supply and they extend as far as Parson Street in Bedminster ! At present fracking companies need to lease land (or seek agreements to drill) from public or private landowners and they need to obtain planning permission from the local council. However, the coalition government has already drafted an energy bill which proposes abolishing the requirement for planning permission. UK Methane has put on hold its plans to extract shale gas using fracking close to the Hicks Gate roundabout on the A4 near Keynsham and the company has relinquished the license covering Chew Magna (PEDL 226). However, that work may start again at any time and the license can be renewed or taken up by another fracking company. http://www.frackfreesomerset.org/ Why should we be concerned? Fracking uses huge amounts of the local water supply and toxic chemicals such as Benzene, Toluene, Phenol and Formaldehyde to fracture impermeable rock and release shale gas or to obtain methane from coal seams underground. It involves drilling first vertically and then horizontally for up to one kilometre or more in both directions. Numerous wells are drilled to ensure continuing production, and this not only disfigures the landscape but also carries the risk of long-term contamination of water sources because all wells leak and degrade over time. Toxic slurry stored in holding ponds also causes air pollution and contaminates the land, especially during heavy rain or flooding. A report for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that exposure to chemicals used in fracking may result in headaches, nausea, insomnia, gastric disturbances, blurred vision and blindness in humans; may affect the brain / nervous system, the kidneys and the immune and cardiovascular systems, and may cause cancer (Colborn, T., Kwiatkowski, C., Schultz, K, and Bachran, M. 2011. Natural gas operations from a public health perspective. Human and Ecological Rick Assessment, 17: 1039-1056. In the UK, Medact has described fracking as an “inherently risky” practice, and 18 leading health professionals state: “The arguments against fracking on public health and ecological grounds are overwhelming. There are clear grounds for adopting the precautionary principle and prohibiting fracking” (British Medical Journal (1st April 2015) Health Professionals call for urgent halt to fracking because of public health concerns). Fracking can also cause subsidence and has been associated with earthquakes in Lancashire. Moreover, it makes climate change worse by increasing greenhouse gas emissions. To understand what fracking could mean for individual households, look at the film Gasland on YouTube. You could also take a look at The Truth Behind the Dash for Gas, a DVD produced by Frack Free Somerset.

The proposed changes in special educational needs transport for disabled children and young people in Derby City and closure of Castle Street Nursery will have a devastating impact of hundreds of parents/carers, and their children. The proposals will deal a further blow to parents /carers, who are already under immense pressure, due to their caring roles and responsibilities. The proposals will also severely affect siblings, and parents/carers ability to get to work.

This person is supplying a service to both old and young alike people in the town centre, he is doing no harm and the people of King's Lynn are behind him in keeping his local business running. It is not all about the big named shops that come to the town, they will up and move at a moments notice. This small business owner has laid out money as he has seen a gap in the market for his wares. Mr Peter Byrne has a clean, and tidy business, with he himself conscientious and friendly.

this is important because a good road surface will keep the residents of Burton safer will cause less damage to our cars vans & motorbikes. Also to stop any injuries to cyclists who have to use the roads too. We deserve better roads and we will campaign to get it done!

We have very shameful and outrageous goings on regarding the sentencing of Robert Green. Not only was he sentenced for 250 hours of community service, but he has been gagged for the rest of his life not to speak about anything to do with the Hollie Greig case. If he does, he is immediately imprisoned for a maximum of 5 years !!! This is unacceptable and it is time to speak out for this man to be Exonerated and the injustice of this whole case. We ask People to Please Sign and Share to Show You Care... Robert was Imprisoned twice... Kept under House Arrest for a year and Now Gagged for Life by Scottish Law, to stop him Speaking Out helping Abuse Victims... We need more Signatures Thank you for helping to get Robert His Freedom of Speech Back... If we Stand Back & Let this Happen to Robert... Who Will Be Next... "Step Forward Without Fear"

Approximately 44% of patients are misdiagnosed with other conditions such as Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and POTS. Doctors need to know how to recognise the condition and services need to be improved to offer sufferers better options than Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Graded Exercise Therapy which has recently been proved does not benefit the patient and in many cases, makes them worse. The psychological approach to treating ME in the United Kingdom needs to end. Patients being classed as having a psychological disease which they have not got means they are generally ignored and other serious medical conditions are missed. The rate of deaths from ME is rising and it's time the NHS did something about it. The NICE Guidelines need to be reviewed in light of the IOM report which has been completely ignored by the Department of Health and patients need to be taken seriously. Current research is just being completely ignored and certain medical professionals are controlling the entire system, not allowing any other specialists access to work with ME patients. Not enough money is being pooled into NHS ME services, many have been cut and most are patchy and offer limited support and treatment. The 25% of bed-bound patients, the severely affected proportion of sufferers are not seen by anyone, they lie in bed, in darkness, ignored by the medical profession. Clinics should offer home visits to bed bound patients. Studies by Chris Snell and Prof Mark Van Ness have proved that exercise makes ME patients worse yet the UK insists on forcing exercise upon it's patients.

In the past three years the following 10 former council services have been outsourced to another provider: 1. Your Choice Barnet 2. Housing Options 3. NSL (parking) 4. Capita CSG: Finance, HR, Payroll, Estates, Property Services, Pensions, Revenue & Benefits, 5. Capita Re: Building Control, Environmental Health, Planning, Trading Standards & Licencing 6. Legal Services 7. Registrars & Nationality Services 8. CCTV 9. Music Trust 10. Mortuary Services The Council is about to begin Competitive Dialogue procurement for Education & Skills and School Meals services with the following contractors • Capita Business Services Ltd • EC Harris LLP • Mott MacDonald Ltd, trading as Cambridge Education Looking at Capita’s track record to date http://www.capita.co.uk/who-we-are/our-history.aspx in bidding and winning contracts it is highly likely they will win this contract making it the third big contract they have won with Barnet Council. Outsourcing is no quick fix or easy win. Here in Barnet we were only 16 months into the Capita contracts when it was announced on Barnet Council website that Capita had received £110 million http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s21029/Appendix I - Capita Payments.pdf Outsourcing is being promoted not just in Barnet but across the whole of the public sector as the answer to shrinking budgets. This dogma is being promoted contrary to the rapidly growing evidence from We Own It web site that it leads to: 1. Your Services get worse 2. Your costs go up 3. You can’t hold private companies accountable. 4. Staff terms & conditions are undermined which impacts on quality of services. 5. It is risky and difficult to reverse. Supporters of outsourcing often claim that the public isn’t bothered about who runs services. Again contrary to the evidence which found: • Only 21% of the public trust outsourcing companies - the lowest level of trust compared to other organisations like the NHS (79%), the police (65%) and the armed forces (79%) • 64% distrust outsourcing companies • 69% of the public think Atos, Capita, G4S, Serco are motivated by maximising profit - while 38% think this should be important • 22% of the public think Atos, Capita, G4S and Serco are motivated by providing the best service to the public - while 80% think this should be important • Only 28% of people think it is appropriate for private companies to run prisons, and only 25% think it is appropriate for them to provide court services • 65% of the public would not feel comfortable using GP services provided by a private company like Atos, Capita, G4S or Serco • Only 16% think there is adequate regulation of private companies running public services, compared to 59% who think more regulation is needed http://weownit.org.uk/privatisation-doesn%E2%80%99t-work/whats-problem-outsourcing-companies Barnet Council is now promoting itself as a Commissioning Council. The clue is in the title and for our members it simply means they will be working for someone else not the Council. Commissioning is being driven by consultants and their friends in the public sector, who secure contracts for them to outsource services. They have no interest in service delivery which inevitably leads to greater inequality both in the workforce & the community we serve. Please view short Animation explaining how Austerity is impacting on our community The Disappearing Council https://youtu.be/YQ5t63fSu-s

As business leaders have been widely reported warning of possible Labour damage to the economy, why has the BBC made no mention of this important intervention by top professionals warning of possible Tory damage to the NHS. Not reporting this letter is political bias, and allows a huge section of the population to be misinformed about an issue that is of huge national importance.

Broxtowe is undergoing great change with centrally-imposed infrastructure projects radically altering the area. The impact of this centrally-imposed, swingeing cut on the local council budget will destroy all hope of mitigating against such changes. Front-line services will be under threat, with the impact being felt by all residents; with the most vulnerable being hit hardest. Read more here: http://www.nottinghampost.com/Borough-faces-biggest-spending-cut-country/story-25737818-detail/story.html

Evictions are at a record high. Council house building is being destroyed and sold off with waiting lists growing. Housing has become insecure, often unsafe and unaffordable Companies are exploiting workers in homeless organisations and Housing Associations, organisations which are often seeing surpluses, yet cuts to pay and important services are being cut. Companies who have blacklisted workers in trade unions are being contracted for public contracts, we say NO. All of this and sadly, too much more, are reasons for our manifesto demands at this key time: 1. Stop the cuts - Austerity for the 99% ! 2. Build and repair over 300,000 Council houses per year, incorporating improved accessibility and environmental standards. 3. Stop the transfer of council stock to housing associations. Stop the social cleansing 4. End the right to buy - We lost over 44,000 homes in 2013-2014 5. Bring in Rent Controls and establish a national register of private landlords to protect tenants 6. End unfair benefit caps and other benefit cuts such as the Bedroom tax and cuts in council tax benefit. Restore and increase the Independent living fund. 7. Protect Supported Housing - Stop the cuts and ring fence services which are vital for some of the most in need of specialist support 8. Decent Pay and conditions for workers in housing and social care 9. Bring in an £10ph National Minimum wage 10. End the Blacklist - restrict commissioning of social housing and maintenance services to providers who have signed up to the Joint Industry Board National Agreement for Engineering Construction. Act to remove approved providers found guilty of blacklisting. 11. Nationalise the Banks - Taking over the banks on a permanent basis would enable investment to be planned in line with democratically decided priorities including housing that working people can afford. We must put a stop to the disaster of austerity and build secure homes for the 99% The full manifesto can be found here - http://www.housingworkers.org.uk/readnews.html?con_id=172 Please cut and paste the full manifesto or add the link and ask your MP's and councillors to pledge their support. https://www.writetothem.com/ And if your looking to find out candidates for local or general elections please use - https://yournextmp.com