The high street as we knew it is dying. Our small market town is suffering a number of established businesses closing with no one wanting to fill the empty premises. Businesses are struggling to survive. Putting extra financial burden on businesses to change signage that the public actually thinks improves the area could discourage other small businesses from opening.

We understand that West Lothian Council is currently undertaking a mapping exercise to understand how community centres are utilised by community groups. The likely outcome of this exercise will be the closure of Torphichen Community Centre at some point between 2025 and 2028. This would be travesty for our village where we rely on this community space and it is currently fully utilised. We need to try and stop this erosion of our community facilities by the Council and ensure that Torphichen Community Centre remains open for future generations. This is an essential facility for our village community. It is used by Torphichen Primary School for their assembly and sports activities. It is home to our After School Club, Jumping Beans, Torphichen Gala Day events, Beecraigs Archers, Zumba with Rachel and Pilates. Without this facility, there will be no-where else in the village for these activities to take place. This would be a blow for our community so please sign this petition to support the fight in attempting to keep our Community Centre open.

The Derby Diocese Board of Education want to increase our lease fees by 6 times, we cannot afford this. We are concerned that the site will be sold for housing development, the village needs a preschool more than a few more houses. Our preschool and after school club have nowhere else to go. Jobs would be lost and our children's education and school preparation adversely affected. A little bit of the village would die. As President of the Board you love Derbyshire, help us please. Willington needs you. If Willington Old School is lost, then so might the preschool and the after school club. They are both fully booked, they are needed. Where will people send their children instead? Nowhere! There is a national shortage of preschool places right now. Don't make that worse, let us stay open. Protect jobs and look after our children. Save our school

The roads in and around Retford are absolutely atrocious. Over the past few months, the standard of the roads has deteriorated rapidly, causing extreme distress and disruption for the town's residents. Many potholes are on main junctions in the town centre and on the main roads, which receive a lot of traffic on a daily basis. In some areas, the roads are simply not fit for purpose. This problem is not just unique to Retford, but to the whole of Nottinghamshire - in recent years, Nottinghamshire has been named as the 'worst county in the country' for potholes/highway maintenance. Despite these warning signs, our Council has done very little/if anything to resolve this issue (some of the repairs that have been done have made the roads even worse!), and this petition is a way for our community to demand more should be done to rectify the problem. There have been many pledges by the council to rectify the issue, but with no results. The roads are now in need of urgent repair - in many cases, new sections of the road need to be re-surfaced. I strongly urge any residents from Retford to support this petition and make our voices heard. Simply reporting a pothole on the council website is not enough - they are not filling them in and the roads are deteriorating even more. This is not a political petition aimed at specific political parties - it is a petition for anyone who wants to see our concerns being taken seriously. We pay enough council tax (and road tax for those who drive) to ensure our local town and roads are well maintained. Where is this money being spent? Why is the town's basic infrastructure not being maintained? Enough is enough. It is time the council take accountability and sort the problem before any further damage is caused.

Keeping a useful and needed facility in the town for everyone

The Fire Brigade Museum is established as a not for profit organisation, run by volunteers, ensuring all revenue supports the objectives of the Museum. The Museum exists to deliver 7 social objectives: 1) Support 999 workers suffering mental illness such as PTSD by support groups & use of revenue to pay for psychological treatment required which isn't readily/quickly available to prevent suicide and loss of career and help in times of financial hardship caused by such events. 2) Support young people 12-25 who have severe confidence issues, additional learning needs or mental illness as they transition from education by offering a safe and supportive environment where they can access Apprenticeships, work placements & jobs among the many different tasks in a museum from restoration trades, catering, marketing, administration, conservation & education. This will prevent suicide & give young people a chance to develop into a career that may have not been open to them due to their conditions, in an environment where they are understood & supported to thrive at their pace. 3) Combat social isolation through volunteering programmes in the Museum from guides, to outreach, to fundraising. To hold a 'person library' where those who are lonely can book some time to chat with a volunteer. 4) To become the National Museum of Firefighting, recording and preserving all aspects of the Fire Service, supporting National Curriculum subjects such as the Great Fire of London and the Blitz. We will provide an immersive experience of these historical occurrences, handling the equipment and uniforms that were there or building modern replicas of historic Firefighting equipment which can be used and demonstrated as accurate portrayals and displays. 5) To champion diversity, inclusion and anti-bullying within the emergency services by educating on the past and by demonstrating inclusive behaviours. 6) To educate on safety through a range of learning experiences, that support the safety and prevention campaigns of Statutory bodies, Governing organisations and the emergency services to prevent injury and to aid these bodies in delivering safety messages across the UK. 7) To actively seek technology and practices that reduce carbon emissions and make this available to partner organisations across the UK. We will educate on the impact of fire and other incident types on the environment, encouraging prevention and environmental protection. We have been given notice by TVBC and our Landlord to vacate our current premises by the end of May 2023. We are urgently fundraising for an alternative premises to prevent closure. Hampshire County Council and Test Valley Borough Council have funds that can be used to help us.

Families who bury their loved one in the new Muslim burial section at a Blackburn cemetery may be expected to sign up to a new set of rulings and conditions. These new rulings and conditions being proposed by Blackburn with Darwen Borough council will have detrimental effects on the Muslim community when burying our loved ones. We need to stand together and object to this as a matter of urgency otherwise these proposed changes will see the end to Muslim burials being performed in the traditional ways they have been carried out over the generations before us.

How would you feel if you were dying for the toilet and couldn’t go? On top of that to hold it in can make you very ill. You would get arrested or fined if you did it on the street and not everyone can hold it in!

Boris Johnson has announced he is joining GB News and will be hosting a show during the UK elections. Our media regulator, Ofcom, has rules that TV stations can’t use their broadcasts to influence viewers to vote for any party or person. A former Prime Minister on a channel that has breached impartiality rules before could be a recipe for disaster for our democracy. We don't have to agree with everything GB News does or says, but we should expect them to be held to the same high standards that other UK news outlets have to follow. Instead we're seeing a slippery slope where GB News could become the Fox News of the UK. A huge petition signed by thousands of us calling on Ofcom to make sure their rules are strong enough to hold ALL news stations to account and make sure that GB News doesn't drag down the standards of news in the UK would show Ofcom that we expect them to do their job properly and stop UK news sliding down to the sorry state it is in the USA.

We live in an ever advancing technological world; without consistent access to devices that work and have access to the internet, a young person's education, development and opportunities to learn are adversely impacted. Would you consider a young person for a job if they brought in a hand written CV instead of applying online? Digital access is now one of the basic necessities, like food, shelter and an education! All young people have the right to the basic equipment and tools to allow them a fair chance to succeed and not be left behind. Digital poverty in young people exists where a person doesn’t have access to the online world and therefore doesn’t have access to the vast amount of information and opportunities that exist within it. An estimated 11.7 million (22 per cent) people in the UK are without the digital skills needed for everyday life; 9 million (16 per cent) are unable to use the internet and their device by themselves; and 3.6 million (seven per cent) are almost completely offline. Basic digital literacy skills are needed by every citizen to become ‘digitally literate’ to participate fully in an increasingly digital society. - ‘Tackling the digital divide. ‘House of Commons, 4 November 2021 Digital poverty has increased since the coronavirus pandemic. It has also been shown that the lack of access to suitable devices or software, reliable and affordable connectivity, suitable learning spaces has affected a higher proportion of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) learners. In a young person, it can result in a poorer education, poorer health, increased loneliness, isolation, an adverse effect on job prospects and even a lower life expectancy. The impact of digital poverty is that it intensifies the class divide keeping the poor in a cycle of poverty with no means of escape. This cause is important because after lockdown we saw the effects on young people without access to devices and the effect it had in their mental health as a result. The impact of the pandemic on learners’ mental health has been considerable with a significant increase in requests for mental health support reported by the providers we spoke to. Mental health issues are impacting learners across the board including those from more affluent backgrounds. Figures show15 that as many as 10 million people in the UK, including 1.5 million children, are thought to need new or additional mental health support as a direct result of the pandemic. However, we know that the pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on BAME groups who have suffered a “triple whammy of threats” to their mental health, incomes and life expectancy16. Children and young people from BAME backgrounds are showing greater increases in depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidal thoughts than white peers during Covid-19 pandemic and Black males are more than twice as likely to experience mental health issues than their White counterparts. Exploring the impact of digital and data poverty on BAME learners , Charles Hutchings and Marianne Sheppard, 2021

Please do sign this petition now. As a local city and county councillor, I have not yet been able to secure a guarantee, the store will remain open trading as Co-op and there are real concerns it will cease trading as a co-op. Retail can move fast. It is vital we let the Co-op Board and Directors know how important and successful this store is, how valued and treasured it is, a flag ship for the co-op brand and very much part of the Claines community.

This petition is important because it calls for a review of the community governance structure in Penrith, with the aim of improving transparency, accountability, and citizen participation in decision-making. It also suggests the creation of smaller parish councils serving the diverse range of distinct communities across Penrith, which would bring more local-focused councils for the communities and likely lead to substantial reductions in costs and parish precepts for households on the annual council tax bill. The petition highlights the fact that the community's voices have not been heard, and their needs have not been adequately addressed by Penrith Town Council. The community must have a say in the governance of Penrith, and a community governance review would provide an opportunity for the community to be heard and have a meaningful say in decision-making.