Successful Campaigns

02/05/18 A message from Grahame: Thanks so much for signing Pauline's petition. I am really pleased to let you know that Pauline has just been granted 30 months leave to stay! So people power really can work! We still have some mountains to cross but we can at last relax a bit now and admire the view! Over 100,000 signatures in less than 10 weeks is amazing. Knowing there are so many good people out there has given us great strength. Apparently the Home Secretary received some 16,000 tweets from petition signers over just the past 2 days (LOL!). Thanks also to 38 Degrees who have been brilliant! Without this support I'm sure Pauline would have been just another case to brush under the carpet! Whilst the decision does not mitigate for the injustices Pauline has suffered (as clearly described by our barrister) it will at least allow the long recovery process to begin. We can now start planning the rest of our lives - including a long-awaited honeymoon! I really hope that lessons can be learned so others don't have to go through the same nightmare. I for one will one work tirelessly to this end. Keep well and thanks again. Grahame (& Pauline) x

We won! In a decision that set a new national precedent, a government planning inspector granted permission to keep Kirkby Moor wind farm running until 2027. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-49515965

01/10/18 - We won! Housing Minister James Brokenshire has just announced a ban on dangerous combustible building materials, like the cladding that was used on Grenfell tower. The government has chosen to put people before profit and you were a part of making that happen, so thank you. So many lives were turned upside down after the Grenfell tragedy. Since then, we’ve been campaigning hard as ‘Grenfell United’ for justice and change, to make sure no families have to go through what we did. Your signature on our petition helped us pile the pressure on the government before the announcement when it really mattered. Here’s what Ahmed Elgwahry, who lost his mother and sister in the fire, had to say: “It is heartbreakingly too late for our families but we’re one step closer to making sure other families across the country can go to bed at night safe in their homes.”

Just a few days after we handed in our huge petition to Westminster Council, the planning application to move the statue was withdrawn! Sir Niel Thorne, the former MP behind the bid to move the staue of Emmiline Pankhurst from its historic home said: “we realised considerable pressure was being put on Westminster City Council, who’d find it more difficult to approve moving the statue.” Thanks to our pressure, Emmeline Pankhurst will remain by Paliament - thank you! https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/16/emmeline-pankhurst-statue-will-remain-near-parliament-plan-move/

26/07/18 We won!!! Home Secretary Sajid Javid said "cannabis-derived medicinal products" will be available "by the autumn" through the NHS system Announcing the changes, Javid said: “Recent cases involving sick children made it clear to me that our position on cannabis-related medicinal products was not satisfactory.” Thanks to the hundreds of thousands of 38 Degrees members who signed this petition, wrote to Sajid Javid, and pushed the government to make this important change to the law.

09/08/18 We Won! We won! Women's Refuges have been saved from disasterous funding changes. The government has listened to the hundreds of thousands of people who joined Women’s Aid, in calling to stop planned changes to how refuges are funded. We told Ministers that these disastrous planned funding reforms would have put women and children’s lives at risk. Refuge managers warned these plans would have “been the end”. We are delighted that the Government has acted; rent in refuges will continue to be funded through housing benefit, which is the very last secure form of income for our national network of services. Up and down the country survivors and refuge services are breathing a sigh of relief. Refuge doors will stay open for the women and children escaping domestic abuse who so desperately need their help. Domestic abuse refuges save lives. With on average two women every week being killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales, refuges provide lifeline. Our campaign is not over; our next battle is to ensure that the funding for the support refuges provide to a survivor and her children - from therapy to help with housing and finances - is secure. We hope you will continue with us on our campaign to win a sustainable funding future for these life-saving services. Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/09/plans-to-remove-womens-refuges-from-uk-welfare-system-dropped

WE WON! 30/05/18 British citizen Andy Tsege has received a pardon from the Ethiopian Government after almost four years on death row in Ethiopia. Andy has now been released from prison and is now with his family in Ethiopia. After four unbelievably hard years for on death row this is wonderful news for Andy, his partner and their children. The new Ethiopian government should be recognised for what they have done today. “I am so thankful that the pain and anguish my children have had to go through could now soon be coming to an end. Helawit, Yilak and Menabe have spent too long without their father and we are all hoping Andy will be free to come home to us soon.” Yemi Hailemariam, Andy’s partner https://reprieve.org.uk/update/andy-tsege-is-pardoned-by-ethiopia/

After over two years of campaigning and thousands of people signing this petition, the Chancellor has closed the holiday let tax loophole! Since 2019, nearly 36,000 homes around England have been lost to the tourist industry, and many more in Wales and Scotland. This announcement should help make more homes available for local people, which will make rents more affordable. Thanks to everyone to who got involved and helped us bring attention to this issue by signing the petition: you made this victory possible.

The Government has decided that the prescription charge upper age exemption will remain at 60, meaning that it will not align to the State Pension age. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/aligning-the-upper-age-for-nhs-prescription-charge-exemptions-with-the-state-pension-age/outcome/aligning-the-upper-age-for-nhs-prescription-charge-exemptions-with-the-state-pension-age-government-response#introduction

STOP PRESS - DECEMBER 2024 GALBA (Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport) is STILL fighting LBA's attempts to expand. So far, we’ve been incredibly successful in our five-year l battle. We have managed to block LBA at every stage of their expansion plans. But now LBA’s bosses have asked the government’s Planning Inspectors to overturn restrictions on night flights, at a Public Inquiry to be held in Leeds in March 2025. If LBA win they will be able to fly an UNLIMITED number of planes at night. Increasing night time flying is central to the airport's expansion plans. The reason is simple: unlimited night flying allows airlines to fly more of their planes round the clock, which means they can dramatically increase the number of flights at the airport. That’s what LBA’s appeal to the Planning Inspectors is all about. More night flights would mean more greenhouse gases from jet engines, polluting our fragile climate, when everyone knows we have to cut emissions as fast and as much as possible. The Climate Change Committee has repeatedly said that airports should not be allowed to expand because there are no large scale alternatives to the fossil fuels used to fly aircraft. OUR ORIGINAL CAMPAIGN We have successfully petitioned the Secretary of State to hold a public inquiry into the expansion of Leeds Bradford airport so that the full national impact of airport expansion can be assessed. The Public Inquiry was due to start on September 13th 2022. But Leeds Bradford Airport pulled out. Since then GALBA has been fighting expansion on many fronts. Here are some of the things we have achieved: We succeeded in calling for a public inquiry into the original planning application – causing LBA to withdraw its application. We achieved this win by using every tactic available to us, including the very best legal advice, an enormous public petition and a letter-writing campaign. We exposed hundreds of unlawful night flights at LBA over the past three summers. We were only able to do this because our dedicated and expert team literally logged every single arrival and departure at the airport – an extremely time-consuming and laborious process. Our hard work paid off because we were able to prove that the airport was not telling Leeds City Council the truth about night flight numbers and the Council was not independently monitoring them. We persuaded Leeds City Council to turn down the airport’s attempts to rewrite the rules that limit the number of night flights. This was a huge blow to the airport and we believe it only came about because Leeds City Council was not able to argue with our relentless monitoring and the detailed legal arguments that we presented to them. During this time we have kept our campaign at the top of the agenda. We’ve made politicians and the public take notice with a series of high profile demonstrations, letter-writing campaigns, petitions, fundraisers and media appearances. Why is this important? As we stand on the brink of climate and ecological breakdown, airports throughout the UK are trying to expand. Leeds Bradford, Bristol, Stansted, Manston, Southampton, Luton and Gatwick are pressing ahead with expansion plans. Supporters of each expansion claim that the increase in carbon emissions is small in a national context. However, the cumulative impact would be a huge increase in emissions at precisely the time we should be doing everything in our power to reduce them. Leeds Bradford Airport expansion is a test case. The local authority has approved expansion, claiming that carbon emissions from international flights is not a matter for local authorities to consider! So we have called on the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick, to order a public inquiry so that the climate impact of expansion can be assessed in a national context. This is not just about Leeds-Bradford. Approval of this application would open the floodgates of expansion at other regional airports. The government must intervene to stop the planned expansion of regional airports if it is to meet legally binding environmental targets and avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. You can hear it from the experts. Over 200 Leeds Uni Academics already agree. https://www.galba.uk/post/press-release-246-uni-of-leeds-staff-and-researchers-ask-robert-jenrick-to-call-in-lba-decision Most importantly please share with your friends and family. Tell them why this matters so much to you. Thank you from GALBA - Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport