Pre application planning consultation shows Austerity design is worse than anticipated due to Lewisham council not putting funding in to this which they could from the redevelopments that are causing need for school places. Sir Francis Drake Primary school is in one of Lewisham boroughs most deprived areas Evelyn Ward, it a local one form entry community school with capacity for 210 children. 52% of school pupils are have English as a second language, 41% are on free school meals and the proportion of disabled pupils and special educational needs is above average. Despite the disadvantages -Currently it is in the top 8% of school in the country for the 2013 SATS and recognised by the DFE as in the top 250 schools in the country measured by the progress made by disadvantaged pupils. The RT Hon David Laws MP Secretary of State congratulated the school for "being exceptionally effective in educating disadvantaged children providing them with a good start in life and a strong springboard into secondary education". Ofsted: Pupils thoroughly enjoy school and this is reflected in their attendance, which is above average. The school provides a very positive and vibrant learning environment, and pupils therefore feel safe and secure. All pupils are equally valued, as the school motto indicates, ‘Everyone is valued and all succeed.’ This ensures that the school strongly promotes equality of opportunity, and does not tolerate any form of discrimination.
Pupils have extremely positive attitudes towards learning, and engage thoughtfully in all activities. Their behaviour around the school is often exemplary. They get on well together, and show considerable respect and care for each other. Despite its success the school has become earmarked for demolition and on its tiny site the plan is to rebuild it as a 3 storey "Pilot" Austerity "baseline design" school with reduced classroom space to provide 30 reception places for 2016 and doubling the capacity of children to 420 on the same small site. Baseline Design schools (Aka Austerity schools) The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is seriously concerned about the unproven ‘Austerity School’ scheme.RIBA President Angela Brady said: 'Our students, teachers and local communities deserve great schools - environments that are beneficial to the best-quality teaching and learning. In these times of austerity of course we need to cut our cloth on all spending; however, the government's proposals for the design and construction of future schools are far too restrictive with too much focus on short-term savings. They say that the scheme’s overall space reduction is ‘ignoring the safeguarding of environmental comfort’ and it is ‘not ensuring discipline and student wellbeing’. They maintain that there is ‘a failure to create functional spaces for excellent teaching’, that ‘students and teachers will be deprived of quality environments that are proven to support teaching and learning’ and the scheme is ‘disregarding statutory requirements for accessibility and inclusion’. The RIBA believe that it does ‘not deliver long-term sustainability and value’. Only time will tell the success of this scheme but for now, the children of SFD will become the first ‘guinea pigs’ for the success or failure of this type of building development. Why is this happening? The council is allowing private developments to build new homes without adequate primary provision. Instead the council has over the last four years opted to enlarge 75% of their primary schools instead. Locally we have 1432 new homes being built but the council says it has no sites to build new schools. Demolishing Sir Francis Drake will not resolve the need for primary places for the developments the council has agreed but it will permanently disrupt and change it irreparably. The council says "The Mayor and Cabinet report (April 9th 2014) provides evidence that there is a need for a school in this locality looking forward to the end of this decade. The due diligence conducted by the government's Education Funding Agency, which would manage the new build, also confirms this." We are asking the council to build a new school that they truly need- a new school would bring an additional 60 reception places in to the locality. We say no to the demolition and rebuild of our successful well maintained, inclusive and diverse little community school so that's it "exceptional work" can go on.

This is a cruel and abhorrent thing to do. Killing animals for food is one thing. But killing for so called sport is wrong. You can write to Glastonbury festival here: office@glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

Cynicism with our political process is widespread, and a major cause is the impunity with which a political party can completely ignore the manifesto on which it was elected. The whipped House of Commons fails to call the executive to account. A non-party-political Citizens' Chamber would act as an important check and balance, ensuring governing parties keep to the election promises they made.

Evidence has been produced indicating very clearly that Brand I.D. greatly encourages young people to start smoking and that habitual smokers are encouraged to continue by product brand identification

My mother who is severely disabled and a pensioner receives home care, without which she could not survive. Had she been unwilling or unable to save money during her lifetime, she would have received this care for free. Because she has savings however, the local council are currently charging her £210 per week. When her savings have gone she will be treated like those who have no savings. The care charges amount to more than two thirds of her income. I am certain that she is not alone in this situation, and call upon the DWP to make this system fair and equitable for all claimants. Care companies charge £15 upwards per hour to provide these essential sevices, they pay their workers minimum wage rates, and the workers are often on zero hour contracts, hence the companies make healthy profits, subsidised by local councils and disabled pensioners with savings. A starting point would be to look at these high charges levied by these private companies, and instruct councils to stop throwing money at these companies, and instead employ their own care workers. These disabled people should not be seen as a quick and easy way to reduce council spending.

I want the government to realise that the unemployed are not lazy, spongers or a burden to the system. Going to the Job Centre 30 plus hours a week will not solve the issue, they be doing exactly the same as they would be doing at home, community support is a free labour for the council, we pay council tax to keep the streets the clean. The unemployed should be going on courses to claim certificates like PTS, CSCS or go to college to get NVQ's, whilst looking for work.

Pavements have often taken on a slant which was not there originally because the recent heavy rains must have somehow changed the level and now it is almost impossible to drive a buggy on that side of some roads. Also as most people in Crawley now have their own driveways, there seems to be no care taken to see that the slope from pavement to road is not done too steeply. As a disabled person, I have already been thrown off and been trapped under my buggy in the road after dark. If it hadn't been for a kind dog walker pulling the buggy off me and helping me up, any car driving round that bend would not have seen me in time as there were cars parked nose to tail on the other side of an already narrow road. Apparently a lady came up here after a complaint about uneven pavements. She took a tape measure out and measured the drop between pavement and normal level and told the lady that the drop was less than 2 inches and so nothing would be done. Pavements in Furzefield , West Green are so full of past repairs done by many contractors, that walking is treacherous and the pavement outside my house is often flooded, because it is below normal level.

All children deserve to be treated equally, if this is deemed a necessary public health measure, then it should apply to all. Children unable to have dairy milk are just as in need of the calcium etc if not more.

We consider that the public toilets are needed: *by the increasing numbers of visitors to the town arriving on foot, by bicycle, bus and car *by local residents and business owners; not all businesses have their own toilets *by the many users of the adjacent Lothian Gardens especially children and their parents and *by people working in the town on a day to day basis as part of their trade.

The destruction of the rain forest is becoming so wide spread that what was once called the Lungs of the world will have been riddled with us as a cancer. We can do a great deal to help just by banning the importation of Mahogany. The locals that chop down the trees are just trying to survive but at what cost to the whole world? This will be having a huge effect especially with climate change. Lets make a stand!

A company called Progress Power is applying to the government for permission to carry out plans to build a Power Station on Eye Airfield industrial estate. Eye is an ancient town with over one hundred listed buildings and about 2,000 inhabitants. Progress Power say they posted the area with 17,000 information leaflets last year, yet not one entered my postbox. An awareness group has been formed locally called Common Concern http://commonconcern.onesuffolk.net through which I first heard about this power station. It is almost too late for protest as the government is about to give Progress Power the go-ahead, partly because very little local protest was voiced. Of course, this is because it seems to have been kept carefully under wraps. We have seen no plans for mitigation and, in fact, the plans that are available from Progress Power are out of date and unreadable. Each visualisation is a bird's eye view and the enormous size and height of the buildings is completely understated. The airfield already has four large wind turbines, which can be seen for miles around, a waste disposal site and a chicken litter power plant, along with many other light industries. I think this is more than enough of a contribution to energy and conservation from the people of Eye. We don't want a huge power station in Eye, it seems totally unsuited to the site. The A140 road, beside which it will be built, is already heavily overloaded with traffic and the hazards created by the building and servicing of this site will cause even more danger. We want Progress Power to think again about the site they choose, if indeed the power station is necessary at all. It is apparently only going to run 60 days a year as a back-up source, but the inhabitants of Eye will have the huge eyesore for 365 days a year, plus noise and light pollution. Switching a power station on and off causes more pollution and noise than continuous running. After 25 years when the power station becomes obsolete, it will be left standing as the safest form of closure. Eye, so far, is a place of quiet and dark nights, where the night sky can easily be seen. This is not the right place.

The UK spends less per person on the Arts than almost any other country in the EU. And theatre gets more tourists visiting the country & RAISES more revenue than football.This should be acknowledged. Removal of VAT would make theatre more accessible to the less well off!