The Department of Health NI are refusing to commission abortion services, despite regulations now in place which make abortion provision a legal requirement. This means that only limited abortion access has been provided and too many women and pregnant people have been refused treatment and told to travel. The Minister for Health has also stated this limited access is an ‘interim’ measure only, which means that there has been NO attempt by the Department to commission fitting, adequate and permanent abortion provision we need. We have the law. Now we need the access.

During this pandemic, many of our green areas have been allowed to grow wild, with no council mowing ongoing. Which is great! Green areas have been allowed to flourish with flowers growing through them. Widespread population declines of bees and other pollinators from habitat loss are a growing concern. However, spontaneous flowers like dandelions and clover can provide pollen and nectar sources throughout the growing season....... Therefore, please don't mow, don't spray, let them grow!

Yesterday it was reported that a female worker from East Timor, Luciana Viviana da Silva (58), who worked at Moy Park’s Dungannon site, died from coronavirus. Covid19 clusters are rising in workplaces in the meat and poultry industries, which have been recognised to be particularly high risk for workers. Action must be taken now to ensure the scale of outbreaks in meat industry in the USA and Brazil are not repeated in Northern Ireland.

People including small children are living in overcrowded rooms, with no privacy or space for self-isolation. The spread of Covid19 is very high in congregated settings and the treatment of people seeking asylum is inhumane. This is a public health and human rights issue and urgent action is needed. People seeking asylum need to be in self-contained accommodation where families can live together and people do not have to share with non-family members.

These recent weeks of the COVID-19 period have shown us what life could be like. Cars no longer dominate our streets and roads. Children and adults alike are cycling and walking - without fearing for their personal safety. Young boys and girls are venturing onto roads where they have never cycled before. This will not continue unless something changes. Streets are for people. Properly designed segregated cycle ways, and adequate footpaths all will allow space for social distancing. But one day COVID-19 will be gone. The cars will remain - we must make space for people. We want Wexford County Council to revisit their 2013 draft Cycling Network Plan, and we want Wexford County Council to reallocate road space to walking and cycling in Wexford. Research published by Sports Ireland on the 30th April 2020 shows an additional 500,000 regular walkers, 450,000 runners and 220,000 cyclists. These numbers show a huge increase in people using public space to move around and exercise. See links to WexBUG for more info

Covid 19 made abundantly clear that our existing health services needed radical transformation to cope with the pandemic. Insufficient hospital bed capacity, too few intensive care beds, too few hospital nurses and staff, glaring structural defects accumulated over decades, as well as two separate health services on an island of 6.6 million inhabitants, were shown up as markedly inadequate. The lack of PPE and other public health resources for testing, contact tracing and protecting older people in nursing homes or health and social care workers arose from the absence of a coordinated, efficient national health service. The situation required the enactment of measures which would have been unthinkable pre-Covid 19. The budget of the Health Service Executive was expanded by €1 billion and the recruitment embargo on nurses and other key staff lifted. North and South, agreements were secured with private hospitals that they would temporarily operate as public hospitals, open to both Covid 19 and non-Covid 19 patients. In the South, patients with Covid-19 are being treated as public patients in what the caretaker Fine Gael government itself has lauded as a single national hospital service with no private-public distinction. If the extension of public healthcare can happen in a pandemic, why not also in ‘normal’ health crisis times? Why can it not be used to address the waiting lists of at least 700,000 in the South, 300,000 in the North? To address the totally inadequate step- down facilities or the lack of home care support? Or to enable everyone to have free access to GPs? The measures taken have shown that a comprehensive public health service is both possible and indispensable for providing healthcare to all when they need it. However, the Dublin government’s deal with the private hospitals, while a welcome step of making private hospitals public, is also costing the public purse €115 million a month. This continues the policy of shoring up the private sector with public money, a policy which has been shown in the North to undermine the ability of the NHS to provide timely cradle to grave treatment, free at the point of use.

The garden's aim is to produce local food and teach gardening techniques. Empowering people to produce their own food is especially important during this time of financial, societal and climate upheaval. The community garden will be totally run by volunteers, and consistently monitored by a committee. Benefits of Community Gardens Health Community gardens increase the public access to affordable, fresh, healthy food (1). People who participate in community gardens, on average, increase their fruit consumption by 10% (1) and areas with community gardens have less obesity (3). The act of gardening is a form of exercise and so participation in community gardens promotes physical activity (1,3). Urban agriculture is also linked to reductions in stress and positive mental health especially for those suffering from mental health problems (3). Community gardens generally promote public health and improve quality of life (1) Community Community gardens promote connection with the earth and with other people (7). Working with each other and sharing resources and time builds social relationships and stronger communities. Participation in community gardens is linked with increased voter registration, civic responsibility, and reduced rates of crime (3). Compared to other communal green spaces community gardens are small scale, low cost and highly used. Community garden areas of public parks see more visits than any other part of the park (2). Resilient Food System and Sustainability Urban agriculture increases food accessibility and local food security (3,1). This is of great significance to food insecure households (3). According to Safefood.eu, one in ten households in Ireland in 2018 suffered from food poverty (8). People who grow their own food, or are a part of a community garden save money by supplementing the food they buy (3). In Seattle growers were able to supplement their produce by 30-40% (3). Many urban agriculture projects produce more than they can consume and donate the excess food to community members and food banks (3). Increasing urban agriculture increases the resilience and sustainability of the city’s food system and reduces reliance on imported produce (3). This is especially relevant in the wake of the coronavirus. Local food is generally considered to be more sustainable because of the carbon cost associated with travel. Education Community gardens can be a great platform for skill shares and events like gardening workshops, and gardening tutoring, taste-testing events or discussion events (1). In one study 20% of students that started gardening in the community garden began gardening at home (1). Community gardens can be used by local schools. This is greatly beneficial for children as gardening helps develop fine motor skills and teaches them about patience, science and where their food comes from (2). Community gardens can host a variety of workshops and help people develop tangible agricultural and organisational skills (3). References 1.Community Gardens: Lessons Learned From California Healthy Cities and Communities | Joan Twiss, MA, Joy Dickinson, BS, CHES, Shirley Duma, MA, Tanya Kleinman, BA, Heather Paulsen, MS, and Liz Rilveria, MPA 2. Community Gardening By Katherine L. Adam NCAT Agriculture Specialist Published January 2011, 3.The Intersection of Planning, Urban Agriculture, and Food Justice: A Review of the Literature Megan Horst, Nathan McClintock & Lesli Hoey 4. Multifunctional Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Land Use Planning in the United States Sarah Taylor Lovell 5.Alma Anne Clavin (2011) Realising ecological sustainability in community gardens: a capability approach, Local Environment, 16:10, 945-962, DOI: 10.1080/13549839.2011.627320 6.The motivations and experiences of community garden participants in Edinburgh, Scotland David McVey, Robert Nash & Paul Stansbie 7.It takes a garden: Cultivating citizen-subjects in organized garden projects Mary BethPudup 8. https://www.safefood.eu/News/2019/New-research-reveals-households-on-low-incomes-need-to-spend-up-to-1-3-of-take-home-income-to-afford.aspx

Bonar's Quarries are seeking permission for 25 years to open an old quarry that has already adversely affected the lives of residents of this heritage town under planning number 1952015. It has gone unnoticed by most of the community during the COVID-19 pandemic but those who remember the building damage, noise pollution, air pollution and misery caused when this quarry was last operated will not want it to return. Unbelievably, the proposal is within just 800 metres of some 23 homes, a secondary school, businesses, multiple farms and within 1 km of Raphoe, a heritage town with a population of over 1000 people and with huge historical and cultural significance. Raphoe is also home to three other schools, a cathedral, a chapel, churches, numerous businesses including a livestock mart, a tourism attraction in Oakfield Park, forestry and many farms. We oppose the noise, dust, vehicular traffic, the safety record of the applicant, water pollution, vibration, the location and the release of any poisonous landfill leachate into aquifers, and second the views of the 18 page objection already lodged. There are many more suitable locations for a quarry but this one, on the edge of our town, simply must not go ahead. Therefore we need as many people as possible to CLICK BELOW TO BACK THIS PETITION and oppose living beside a functioning quarry in Raphoe for the next 25 years.

In Northern Ireland, more deaths are occurring due to Covid19 in care homes than in hospitals. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-52529270 In Ireland, all care home workers and residents are being tested for Covid19. Yet here in Northern Ireland, residents and staff are only tested for coronavirus in care homes where there is a suspected outbreak.

Covid19 is putting a spotlight on how flawed the model of private 'for profit' nursing home care in Ireland is. They are driven by profit with many now owned by huge companies. Problems with overcharging, understaffing and poor treatment of older people have hit the headlines in recent years and now they have become the epi-centre of the Covid19 pandemic. Nurses and healthcare staff in private nursing homes are not well treated - no sick leave, overworked, part-time contracts, poor working conditions, reliance on agency/temporary.

Gardens have the capacity to maintain the physical distancing and hygiene practices necessary to combat the spread of COVID-19. Community Gardens and Allotments provide for a wide scope of citizens, including low-income and marginalised people, allowing them access to organically grown, sustainable, healthy food, which might be out of their budget to purchase otherwise. We are at the start of growing season and many rely on food crops from their extended gardens to sustain them in the coming months therefore the closure notice served at the end of March hits many with additional frustration on top of ongoing situation in the society. Complete closure order from the council will inevitably lead to unnecessary food waste, but what is the worst - depression may take people's lives in an already stressful situation when many lost their jobs, or part of income, due to Covid-19. We must protect the vulnerable who find refuge and hope in growing a garden. The Local Councils must work towards improving access to HEALTHY, LOCALLY grown food in a SAFE space, while maintaining necessary precautions regarding spread of Covid-19. We can’t afford to deepen the antagonism in our society, particularly during a public health crisis. COMMUNITY GARDENS AND ALLOTMENTS ARE ESSENTIAL.

Clusters of COVID-19 are emerging in Nursing homes across the country putting very vulnerable people at risk. In order to protect residents and to cut down on the number of infections, staff in Nursing homes need to use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at all times irrespective of whether or not they themselves are symptomatic.