Successful Campaigns

On 17 March 2021, Transport Secretary Michael Matheson finally announced that the ScotRail franchise will be brought back into public ownership from 1 April 2022, when Abellio's contract ends. Thanks to everyone who signed our petition, first launched the day after the Independence Referendum in September 2014. It has been a long fight, but we did it!!

Yesterday four of our group spoke in front of a full Edinburgh Councillor meeting and handed in all your signatures to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh. The council then debated the issue and voted on what to do next. We are absolutely delighted to report that the council voted overwhelmingly to continue Edinburgh Childcare 4 All, and so we have won!!! We're due a full investigation and report into how this happened , guaranteed funding for children currently in the scheme and, importantly, a guarantee that the scheme remains open to new applicants! For all of us this was never just about our individual children. Because we know how vital this support is to vulnerable children and their families, we are so relieved that more kids and communities will now get to benefit! Edinburgh remains a shining light in inclusive practise and can be proud of the example it is setting to the rest of the country. If you are interested to watch our deputation and the petition hand in, a recording is available on this website. https://edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/801091 Our speeches and the hand-in begin at 1 hour 5 mins and the debate and vote begin at 3 hours 49 minutes. We couldn't have won this without you all sharing this petition and emailing your councillors. You really made a huge difference by putting pressure on when it counted. Thank you for your time and energy! We will keep the petition open for now while we hold Edinburgh Council to account and make sure they keep their promises. You'll hear from us again if we need you to put the pressure on again. But just now we can all celebrate! Woo Hoo! From all of us in our Keep Edinburgh Childcare4all group - thank you from the bottom of our hearts! PS - Here's a news report from yesterday https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/parents-demand-edinburgh-council-restart-27630509?int_source=nba

03/04/14 - I am pleased to announce that today, Mendip District Council have refused the application to fell the Frome Plane Tree. Thank you all for signing the petition - 2,744 signatures of support undoubtably made a difference - amounting to around 10% of Frome town's population. Well done also to those 80 of you that made a direct objection to the council, as that is the forum they really have to listen to.

WE WON! 31/05/18 Scotrail have agreed service was below acceptable standard, carried out an independent review and stopped the practice of skipping stops as the first of 20 improvement steps

Update 22/02/17 National Express met with the victim and committed to reviewing their training procedures. Marvin Rees, now our elected mayor, was involved and oversaw the relationship with National Express. Thank you to everyone involved.

Thanks, 38 Degrees, for facilitating this. The Council backed down. Now there's a new 38 Degrees petition to save Telferton allotments in Edinburgh from the predations of a housebuilder.

14/06/24 - We won! Post Office hero Alan Bates – who has led a 20-year campaign to expose the Horizon computer system scandal – is to receive a knighthood in the King's Birthday Honours! This follows over 100,000 of us signing this petition calling for his tireless effort to be recognised. Read more about it here: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/kings-birthday-honours-alan-bates-33030192

Brilliant news - Michael Gove has abandoned his plans to drop climate change from the curriculum! And the papers are reporting that it was the “widespread support” for our campaign that persuaded him to change his mind. As a teacher, it means so much to me to know that young people will have the opportunity to understand climate change and how it will affect their lives. It’s only by educating children about what their future will look like that we can give them the chance to shape it for the better. The outpouring of support for our campaign was incredible. More than 37,000 of us came together with campaigners from the UK Youth Climate Coalition and People & Planet. We signed petitions, wrote letters and took our campaign right to Gove’s Department for Education. Thank you so much to everyone who stood with me to do this. It couldn’t have happened without you.

19/2/15 update: Portsmouth City Council has now overturned its three-year opposition to our demand and has at last issued a specific type of legal Repairs Notice specifying how the pier must be safeguarded for the future. This was a stunning result brought about by YOU and more than 12,600 other people signing our petition – including more than 7,000 on 38 Degrees.

01/02/18 - We Won! On February the 1st, I presented full council with the 5,623 signatures of the ‘Open Brighton's Homeless Shelters 365 days a year’ petition and made an appeal to the room. After some debate, there was then a vote on expanding the provision of services to those already homeless. In a stunning repeat of last year’s unanimous vote, the council have now agreed - without abstentions - to send an extra £25,000 for night shelters, bringing the total to £160,000. This is an amazing result, and you played a key part in it. I’m so proud of what we achieved, as you should be.