Thanet District Council (TDC) say they can’t afford to continue to maintain Pierremont Hall, in Pierremont Park, in Broadstairs and have now asked most tenants to vacate by 3rd January, prior to a decision being made whether or not to sell the building. The Hall is 18th Century, Grade II Listed and the young Princess Victoria is known to have stayed here before she became Queen. More to the point perhaps, the community in Broadstairs is accustomed to Pierremont Hall functioning as our Town Hall, sitting as it does in the very heart of the town, with many key events in the Broadstairs calendar played out with the Hall as the backdrop. The Hall was designated as a Community Asset this year which means that the community have the right to bid and purchase the building, there is a strong case to be made that it must remain in community ownership as that was always the intention of the original owners. The Hall and park are just a short stroll from Broadstairs station, at the heart of this charming town, perched at the top of the high street, with the upper floors enjoying stunning sea views. At present, while the building is not in a good state of repair overall it is an attractive and important amenity within the park and to the town as a whole. The building and public park it sits in was gifted to the people of Broadstairs around 1929, and seemingly designated for community use at that time. The exact terms of any covenants which exist are not known as TDC have so far not released this information. The town’s war memorial sits at the entrance to the park, facing towards the Hall and each year several key community events take place in the park, around the centrepiece of the hall. There is an Easter Food Fair, Folk Week parade and concerts, the Remembrance Day service and Christmas Fayre. We discovered this week (18th December), that several tenants, including local businesses and charities, have been told to leave by 3rd January, some have already gone, others are packing. Two key tenants are not leaving: the Broadstairs and St Peter’s Town Council occupy offices on the ground floor with an eleven year lease so they are very much sitting tenants. They also have use of the council chamber and mayor’s parlour and have functioned as de facto caretakers for the building. Broadstairs Folk Week, approaching their 50th anniversary, also occupy offices and intend remaining, as a move at this time could have a devastating effect on the Festival in 2015. Internationally renowned, Broadstairs Folk Week brings thousands of visitors to the town from all over the world. It is glaringly obvious that should the building become empty it becomes painfully vulnerable and is highly likely to become a target for vandals and worse. Existing tenants have spoken of frequently having to take action to deal with unwanted elements targeting the building even when it is occupied.

Cardiff Council is currently consulting on their proposed budget plans for 2015/16. These plans include a major attack on the city’s library service. Under the current proposals some libraries will stop receiving any council funding at all, which means that if “community groups” cannot be found to take over the running of Cathays, Radyr, Rhydypennau, Roath and Whitchurch libraries they will have to close completely. Others, such as the Central Library, Llandaff North & Fairwater will be forced to become “hubs” and share premises with officers administering and giving advice on housing benefit, council tax and loan services. Many of the Libraries already provide these services so the addition of these “hubs” would mean a non-efficient public library service. If Cardiff Council proceeds with its plan to continue running down the city’s library service, it will not only mean that less people in the city will be reading – it will be depriving residents of a place to meet and study, imposing further job losses on council staff, and making it harder for unemployed people to search for work. Rather than closing libraries or running them down by forcing them to share premises with other inappropriate services, the council should find a way of living up to its legal obligation to provide a comprehensive and efficient service throughout the city.

Freedom of speech! Chris Spivey is an independent journalist, with a website where he publishes articles based on his own research. Chrisspivey.org Since the summer of 2014, he has been a victim of ongoing police harassment, such as an illegal entry without a warrant and personal belongings being taken and is currently still on bail for dubious charges. There is also what appears to be a coordinated attempt by social services to intimidate Chris, by questioning his grandson's health and well being .

As a resident, garden designer and green-space design student, I often find myself in conversations with tourists and residents alike over the lack of breathable green space in the centre of such a historic green city. Nick Davis ( The Development Director) has said " the final exterior design of the car-park is currently being progressed in close consultation with stakeholders and will utilise high quality materials to reflect the rest of the Buchanan Galleries Development and present a seamless link to the redeveloped Queen Street Station." The exterior to the existing car park is less than inspiring given Glasgow's aspirations to be a global tourist destination. In fact the bland, blonde and red brick building is the first thing many people see when arriving at Buchanan Street Bus Station or Queen Street Station. With Glasgow city council setting ambitious sustainability, health and environmental targets, wouldn't it be truly inspirational to install a 'living wall' as part of the redevelopment. These walls are becoming commonplace in some areas of the far east, France and the US. They demonstrate a city's commitment to the environment. I'm unaware of any initiatives that are bringing this global idea to our city and yes it may be challenging in our climate, but I expect the city to innovate! After the George Square controversy, I encouraged the the city planners to take a dynamic lead in showing it's green credentials - To reflect the 'dear green place' and put as much thought into the exterior as the interior.

New guidelines (NICE) says that this must change and more support for new mothers and families must now be in place.

In 1978 I like millions of others were told we would retire at 65 if we signed up to the 1978 Pensions Reform Act. Indeed the UK Government forced every Company offering pensions to prove their scheme was equal to, or exceeded the Pension offered by the State. I like millions of others were told we would retire at 65 now the UK Government has arbitrarily renaged on that undertaking and is making people born after 1955 retire later and later, despite giving an undertaking in 1978 that we would retire when we reached 65

We the undersigned urge the Governors of Sheffield City College to cease their redundancy programme, to reject profiteering and campaign with staff unions for public investment in FE that enables long term planning and the provision of a broader menu of further and adult education.

In the light of recent events many ethnic minorities and religions are being targeted with vitriolic hate. People with differing sexual preferences are targets and there are more and more calls for violence against people who stand up for common decency standards. Comments such as "let them die because they will only grow up to be future terrorists" after the recent massacre of children in Pakistan are not seen to violate the current standards yet someone who has posted a photo breastfeeding their child is removed. Pages that posts, often incorrect, photographs targeting religions that then incite a whole raft of comments such as "drag the lorries over razor blades" in relation to a photo about illegal immigrants (which was actually refugees in a totally different part of the world), "maybe a sniper aimed at Downing Street/The White House will do the job" and "put them on a boat, tow them out to sea and let the Navy have target practise" are all acceptable according to Facebook's Community Standards yet a brave lady who tattooed her body to try and remove the taboo about a mastectomy isn't. A page that suggested that anyone who is gay should be ostracised, allowing boys to play with dolls will "turn them gay" and is "psychological abuse" is allowed to continue spreading hate. There are many more examples such as these but they don't violate the Community Standards! One photograph (whilst innocent enough) had the names of people opposed to the page in the comments with the suggestion that the page's likers "fight fire with fire - go get them" didn't initially break Facebook standards (until they were pushed to look beyond the photograph. Even then it had taken a week and the people listed had received hate mail and threatening, abusive comments from followers of these pages). I am asking Facebook to reconsider their community standards because I believe there will be more and more violence towards innocent people simply because they are part of a religion or their sexual preferences are different or they have a different point of view. To me this is totally unacceptable and needs to be looked into however a big company such as Faebook won't do anything about it unless enough people tell them it is unacceptable.

Nature and wildlife is being increasingly scarce due to our constant need to build more houses. We are having increasing flooding issues due to all our natural drainage being built upon. Wildlife is dying out due to the habitat in which they live being destroyed. children have less places to play and miss out on the enjoyment of nature at its best because we keep building on all the beautiful areas of our country. Without the countryside, without trees and without the wildlife there will be no need for housing because the human race will eventually die off. Please help us save this land, it may not be a huge piece of land but in our area it is a very special piece of land for many reasons.

Because you can't allow 90,000 children to be homeless in one of the richest countries in the world. It's disgraceful.

London is one of the most expensive, and unequal cities in the world. It hosts more billionaires than any other city whilst millions of people are forced to get by on poverty wages. The London Living Wage (LLW) is meant to afford people the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families with the essentials of life and to achieve an adequate level of warmth and shelter, a healthy palatable diet, social integration and avoidance of chronic stress. That is why everyone should be paid at least the LLW. The LLW is set annually by the Living Wage Foundation and calculated by the Greater London Authority. It currently stands at £9.15 per hour. Sotheby’s The cleaners at Sotheby’s, the world’s largest art business, are contracted out and only paid £8.55 p/hour despite Sotheby’s only employing around 1,500 staff members and dishing out around £150 million in wages between them. In fact, the cleaners at Sotheby’s recently received a pay cut from £8.80 p/hour to £8.55 p/hour being told that if they didn’t accept it their jobs would be at risk, despite Sotheby’s spending an extra £13 million on wages compared to last year. As such, the cleaners are really picking up the crumbs. Sotheby’s also uses unpaid interns to help run its business which is both morally reprehensible and legally questionable. Topshop Topshop only pays £6.50 to their cleaners, who are also contracted out. This is despite the fact that the Arcadia Group, the parent group of Topshop, recorded profits of £481m in 2013. Philip Green is also a renowned tax evader, uses sweatshops in Mauritius, and even uses factories in Britain in which workers are paid less than half the legal minimum wage according to a Channel 4 Dispatches. Barbican Centre The cleaners at the Barbican Centre, who are also contracted out, won the LLW in 2013 after a year long campaign. However, the Corporation of London (who owns the Barbican Centre) has refused to increase the LLW to the current rate of £9.15 p/hour. Quotes from cleaners (all wish to remain anonymous) A cleaner from Topshop says: “Earning only £6.50 per hour means I have to work so many hours a day to pay my bills that I barely have time to see my children. It also means I can’t afford to travel by tube and need to spend several hours a day on the bus just to get to and from work.” A cleaner from Sotheby’s says: “Working so hard that my joints hurt, for so little for a company that makes so much money is just not fair. Our wages should be enough to cover the basic costs of living in London, and they simply aren't." A cleaner at the Barbican Centre says: "After having fought so hard to win the Living Wage, to now be told that we won't be paid it is just tragic. We will have to go back once again and fight for the Living Wage.” The cleaners at Topshop, Sotheby's and Barbican Centre are members of the trade union United Voices of the World (UVW).

This will not only save the NHS millions but will save many thousands of people with ME untold harm and suffering and hundreds of premature deaths. CBT is a ‘scam’ therapy that is wasting vast sums of money. Patients are being misled because the short-term fix offered by CBT does not have a lasting benefit, says leading psychologist Oliver James. CBT is no more effective than placebo in treating anxiety or depression. Oliver James says proponents of CBT have ‘mis-sold’ the treatment to policymakers and the public, who are wasting their time. CBT is largely ineffective for the majority of patients. The management strategies making up the bulk of the ‘treatments’ on offer by the National Health Service in the UK — “CBT and Graded Exercise” seem absurd to patients and carers given the problem on the ground. ME Research UK CBT/GET is not only hardly more effective than non-interventions or standard medical care, but many patients report that the therapy had affected them adversely, the majority of them even reporting substantial deterioration. We conclude that it is unethical to treat patients with ME/CFS with ineffective, non-evidence-based and potentially harmful "rehabilitation therapies", such as CBT/GET. Dr Michael Maes and Dr Frank N Twisk http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19855350.................“GET is not therapy – it is simply the enforcement of an opinion rather than a treatment based upon any scientific examination of a patient’s pathology and treatment of that pathology. …..Graded exercise programmes may be significantly dangerous to many of these ME patients” Dr Byron Hyde.................“The whole idea that you can take a disease like this and exercise your way to health is foolishness. It is insane.” Dr Paul Cheyney.............CBT and GET are at best useless and at worst extremely harmful for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis patients. Patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis, particularly children, have suffered gross and barbaric abuse and persistent denigration as a consequence of the beliefs of certain psychiatrists who are attempting to control the national agenda for this complex and severe neuro-immunological disorder. These psychiatrists are shown to be clearly in breach of the first tenet of medicine --- first do no harm--- in that by their words and deeds they have wreaked havoc in the lives of M.E. The Hummingbird Foundation for ME http://www.hfme.org/meandmistreatment.htm