Successful Campaigns

26/04/25 Back in 2022, you kindly signed our petition calling on Islington Council to simplify planning rules to allow more energy efficiency upgrades in listed and conservation area homes, for both owners and renters. For three years, thanks to your more than 2000 signatures, our campaign group has lobbied hard for the Council to modernise its approach and strike a better balance between conservation and energy efficiency. In the autumn, the Council will finally publish a brand new set of rules. Although progress has been slower than promised and the first draft document has been flawed, we are pleased that many of our recommendations for a more user-friendly and cost-effective approach to planning will be adopted. https://www.letstalk.islington.gov.uk/draft-climate-action-supplementary-planning-document It took a huge collective effort by residents and experts to get us this far. We are particularly grateful to Chris Procter, author of a seminal climate emergency conservation area toolkit, for his meticulous critiques of the council’s work and getting the council to rectify important gaps like accepting slimline vacuum glass for windows. Having got this far, it is now time to end our campaign. However, Chris Procter will continue to lead the way with both the Council and residents on all things retrofit. So if you wish to explore retrofit opportunities for your home please feel free to get in touch with him at [email protected] https://www.procter-rihl.com/ In other news, our co-founder Leyla Boulton was recently elected councillor for the City of London's Bassishaw ward, where she will continue to campaign for better and more sustainable use of buildings. In the meantime she’s thrilled to have installed solar panels on her roof in Islington. Thank you again for your support and happy retrofitting! Leyla Boulton and Anne-Marie Huby Co-founders The Green Conservation Campaign

UPDATE: 25/10/18 Your support has helped gain concessions from government with the creation of a £60,000 fund to complete the mapping of pollinator habitat in England. Buglife welcomes this as a first step towards securing the future of our pollinators. This is real affirmative action in the battle to preserve the buzz of life. Once mapping is completed more resource will be needed to deliver the on-the-ground action to turn the maps into landscapes full of wildflowers for pollinators.

Dear friends, Thanks to YOU, last year the Government conceded on their dystopian plans to allow police to use GPS ankle tags on innocent campaigners and ban them from attending marches and demonstrations. We showed the Government that we would not allow extreme police powers in a democratic country like the UK, and thanks to thousands of us coming together they were forced to drop their plans. But we're still working to reclaim privacy and defend freedoms at this time of enormous technological change - you can find out about our other campaigns here https://you.38degrees.org.uk/partnerships/big-brother-watch Thank you for taking action. Silkie Carlo Big Brother Watch Director

Aintree racecourse have made safety improvements to the Grand National race in 2024. This includes reducing the number of horses running from 40 to 34 and bringing the start time forward to improve the Aintree ground. Despite these welcome new safety measures for the feature race, two horses still sadly died during the 3 day meet. We hope that Aintree racecourse will continue their progress and consider how the Grand National race in 2025 could be even safer. https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/racing/grand-national-2024-safety-changes-horses-b2528159.html https://www.express.co.uk/sport/horseracing/1887883/Grand-National-Festival-Pikar-dead-Giovinco

10/12/21 FINALLY, A WIN FOR WILD ANIMALS After decades of campaigning and years of waiting, Born Free welcomes UK Government plans to end the legal import of trophies from hundreds of wild animals, shot for ‘fun’. Read more here: https://www.bornfree.org.uk/news/uk-trophy-import-ban

19/02/19 We were delighted and surprised by an announcement yesterday by Suffolk County Council about our funding for 2019/2020. The Council will still reduce its funding to Citizens Advice by half in 2019/2020, but two Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) will make up the shortfall [1]. CCGs are the NHS bodies responsible for commissioning health care services in their local area. This is a great result and on behalf of our clients we want to thank you for signing our petition and for lobbying local councillors. Citizens Advice is often the only place to which someone in need can turn for help. That help is vital to those that need it. Your support for our campaign to keep the service going made all the difference. Still, this funding is only for one year. The people who signed our petition asked the County Council to commit to ongoing funding for the Citizens Advice service in Suffolk. Your backing has made such a difference to us, and we will let you know about any new developments. Citizens Advice charities in Suffolk

No parent should have to hold their children and comfort them as they die, or be told that their child has been harmed by someone who is supposed to love them. But that’s exactly what I had to experience 10 years ago when my sons Jack and Paul were killed by their father after a family court judge granted him unsupervised contact with them, despite my warnings. For the past nine years, I’ve been campaigning with Women’s Aid to ensure children are at the heart of every decision made in the family courts and their voices, wishes and feelings are heard. I’ve been to Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament to help get key changes through in the Domestic Abuse Act.  In 2017, we saw new guidance published for judges making decisions about child contact in cases of domestic abuse. And in 2020, the Government committed to make the family courts safer for adult and child survivors. But years later, we’re still waiting for true reform to keep children safe now and for generations to come.  That’s why I’m calling on the new Labour Government and family courts to ensure, once and for all, that decisions made about parental contact do not allow known abusers to have unsafe contact with children that puts their lives at risk.

UPDATE - 06/04/17 I’ve just received some fantastic news: the Curzon Mayfair is no longer under threat of closure. The developers and cinema have come to an agreement, and so the venue will continue to operate as normal. I therefore want to say a huge thank you for getting behind the campaign to save the cinema. Without your support and the 27,000 others who signed the petition, we almost certainly wouldn’t be making this announcement today. It shows that by pulling together, we can help protect the West End’s cultural heritage.

We won! Incredibly, our campaigning seems to be working: in 2023 the Duchy of Cornwall agreed to our petition to expand Dartmoor’s temperate rainforest. The Crown Estate (the biggest of the Royal Estates) announced its first ever beaver release. And now, the unthinkable: even the king’s beloved Balmoral, once a bastion of bloodsports, is set to get its first rewilding project. https://www.wildcard.land/rewild-the-royals.html ​Read our Guardian article celebrating our successes here. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/28/revolt-royals-rewilding-rainforest-beaver-balmoral

We have sent this petition to the council