Local News

Covid rates have risen slightly across Devon, fuelled by a sharp rise in cases in Torbay. In the latest complete seven day period (to Sunday 9 January) the county recorded 13,994 new cases, 191 (1.4 per cent) more than in the previous week.

A £280,000 refurbishment is on the way for The Den after councillors approved plans. The money, which will come from levies on housing developments, will pay for three new play zones, equipment and safety surfacing. Teignbridge District Council said the existing facilities had reached “the end of their useful life” after 16 years.

The funding system for special educational needs is “broken,” the boss of Devon County Council says, with the authority’s total overspend on the service set to rise to almost £90 million. The government has told councils to put overspends for supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) into separate accounts for three years until April 2023, while it develops a new plan to fund provision.

Ottery St Mary Police are currently looking to recruit volunteers to join our established scheme in Cranbrook. If you can spare a few hours a month please contact PCSO Jonathan Sims via email 30384@dc.police.uk.

Police are appealing for information after a number of distinctive and sentimental items were stolen in a burglary on Copp Hill Lane, Budleigh Salterton. The suspect is believed to have forced entry into the property between noon on Monday 27 December and 4.15pm, on Friday 31 December.

The decision, which is also being applied to garage rents and service charges, will mean an average weekly increase of just over £3 per property. The city council says the move is necessary due to tenants benefiting from an annual one per cent cut in rent between 2016 and 2020 as part of government policy.

Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant which recognises the impact that the Omicron variant had over the Christmas and New Year period.   Worth up to £6,000, it is aimed at business which have struggled in what should have been the most profitable time of the year.

Councillors will ultimately vote on any potential rise in the coming weeks, but if passed it will follow similar increases proposed by other local authorities in Devon in light of rising inflation and reduced revenues because of the pandemic.

Despite Exmouth’s ageing station being slated for closure in 2015 it has remained a base for operational officers. Now the Station Road site will be redeveloped and a modern facility built for officers and staff. Devon and Cornwall Police and the force estates department, which is run by the Commissioner, will now set up a project team to deliver the new facility.

The council plans to increase its share of the tax by £5 – the maximum allowed by the government without going to a referendum – when it finalises its budget for the 2022/23 financial year in the coming weeks. It would see the annual payment for a band D property rise by 2.78 per cent to £185.17. This is only around nine per cent of residents’ total council tax bill and is separate from the part of the tax that goes to Devon County Council, the police and the fire service.

Covid cases have continued to increase sharply across Devon, but the county remains below the UK-wide infection rate. 74 patients are in Devon’s hospitals with covid, an increase of over 50 from a week ago. More than half (92) are at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. Elsewhere, 37 are at the RD&E in Exeter, 28 in Torbay, 10 in North Devon and seven at Devon Partnership mental health trust sites. Of the total number of patients, 13 are on ventilation beds.

Sadly, the new bench has been damaged, removed from the ground and upturned. Any resident(s) with information please report it to Devon & Cornwall Police. Let's help to combat mindless vandalism together.

In her report, director of finance Angie Sinclair says while the cost pressures in adult care and health – now reporting a slightly lower overspend of £5 million – have stabilised, it has “worsened” for children’s services.

From today (Tuesday 11 January), people in England who receive a positive lateral flow device (LFD) test result for coronavirus are required to self-isolate immediately, without having to take a confirmatory PCR test.

It is thought the aircraft skid was damaged during the landing on the moor, probably as a result of impact with a sub-surface rock; the damage only became apparent after the patient whom the crew were called to assist, was safely transferred to Derriford Hospital. 

Steve Brown, Devon’s Director of Public Health, was asked this week, with coronavirus cases in Devon already high and predicted to get considerably higher this month due to the Omicron variant, what more should people in the county do.

In eight of the ten council areas in Devon the proportion of people boosted is higher, with only Plymouth and Exeter lagging behind. East Devon ranks highest in the county at 73.2 per cent the sixth highest figure in England.

The South West has been allocated 58 constituencies, an increase of three from the current number, which includes an extra seat in Devon. It would mean the existing Tiverton and Honiton seat, currently held by Neil Parish, would be split into a Tiverton and Minehead and a new Honiton constituency, while a new Exmouth constituency would cover parts of the existing East Devon seat as well as some areas of Exeter.

The latest complete weekly stats (to Sunday 2 January) show an increase in infections in every council area in the county. The Devon County Council area, which excludes Plymouth and Torbay, saw infections rise by 62 per cent. The 8,645 cases are almost 3,300 more than the previous week. This huge increase takes the area’s infection rate to 1,066 per 100,000 of the population. 

Officers at Streetscene, which cleans and maintains public spaces in East Devon including parks, public gardens and council-owned toilets, say an additional £285,000 is needed to keep up with demand for its services.

The proposals agreed by East Devon District Council’s cabinet would increase charges at 19 car parks in “prime locations” from £1 to £1.50 per hour at the start of April, with a potential 10p increase per hour for the following three years, ultimately taking the price to £1.80.

The council plans to increase its share of the tax by £5 when it finalises its budget for the 2022/2023 financial year, which begins in April.  The 3.3 per cent rise is the maximum yearly rise allowed by the government. The move, now approved by EDDC’s cabinet as part of the draft budget for next year, now goes to a vote at full council as part of the budget-setting process. 

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Cranbrook Town Council has pledged to assist as many residents as possible to make changes to improve their Carbon Footprint, as well as doing so themselves. No matter how small the change, we can all make a difference individually, Reduce, Reuse & Recycle campaign for change.

There has been two incidents of fly tipping in the last couple of Days in Shute Honiton and Cranbrook. The first is in Shute, Honiton where the REACT team have been busy with StreetScene East in dealing with a vast amount of fly tip fridges found near Shute recycling centre, Honiton. Over 15 fridges as well as glass and general rubbish have been cleared yesterday. And the second is in Cranbrook where the Town Council have seen a rise in fly-tipping outside Barnardo’s charity shop at Gallops Court. Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of waste on someone else’s land.

East Devon District Council is thrilled to announce the Seaton Hole Beach Management Plan, which has been several years in the making, has been rubber stamped by the Environment Agency.

The Beachcomber Café on the seafront has been closed since the blaze in July 2017, but a long-running legal battle with the former tenants meant Teignbridge District Council did not recover possession of the cafe until almost three years later.

Alison Hernandez is faced with her annual decision on setting police precepts – the amount households pay locally towards policing through their council tax bills – and says she wants to know how the force is doing. The commissioner also hopes to gauge how much support there is for plans to open more police stations to the public.

The government is being urged to allow “flexibility” for how council meetings are held, after Teignbridge councillors backed the option to hold virtual sessions. A motion by leader Alan Connett (Lib Dem, Kenton & Starcross) was passed by the ruling executive this week, requesting a permanent change to the law to allow the council to hold virtual, hybrid or physical meetings “to suit the local context and needs of residents and councillors.”

January exams will go ahead as normal at Exeter University despite the rise in covid cases, though most students will take online assessments. In a new year email to students sent on Tuesday, university registrar and secretary Mike Shore-Nye says some exams are scheduled to take place on campus. He has reminded those sitting them to take lateral flow tests beforehand and to wear masks unless exempt.

Two people have been arrested in connection with a major fire that took place in Tiverton last weekend.

Locally choose either Lewis Pharmacy in Exmouth or the Greendale Centre on the A3052 Both have walk ins available and you can also book via the NHS website.

Covid has risen sharply across Devon, as the county begins to replicate the rising levels of the virus across the rest of the UK. In the week to Thursday 30 December, Torbay’s rate rose by over 50 per cent, with increases of just under half in Plymouth and the Devon County Council area.

Exmouth residents can make a healthy new start to 2022 by getting outdoors and enjoying nature thanks to the launch of three new Green Health Route guides. Each guide details two nature walks of different lengths, starting from the front door of the five surgeries in Exmouth: Imperial, Haldon, Claremont, Rolle and Raleigh. The Green Health Route guides have been developed by Doctor Tom Wright in partnership with the Wild East Devon team for the Wild Exmouth project.

As residents in Devon admire their collection of Christmas cards on window sills and shelves, many will be hoping to do their bit for the environment, after Twelfth Night, by putting them in recycling bins. But most councils in the county are warning people to think twice before disposing of cards, as many of them may not be recyclable.  One local authority has even said it won’t accept any Christmas cards at all in its green bins.  The problem is that many Christmas cards are made of more than just paper. 

The fungi Clavaria zollingeri which looks like an underwater violet coral, was recently discovered by one of our conservation officers, Helen Cavilla, at Paccombe Farm, home to more than 350 donkeys.

Man charged with two offences following missing Leona found safe and well. He is due to appear before Exeter Magistrates Court today Saturday 1st January.

On New Years Eve Exmouth RNLI volunteers were tasked to a report of persons stranded by the tide at Orcombe Point, Exmouth.

East Devon recycling and waste collections dates will be different for the next 4 weeks. For more information either look at your bin hanger or visit:eastdevon.gov.uk for more information. Collections will return to normal from Monday 24th January

With 2021 now in the rear-view mirror, most of us are now looking forward to 2022! It’s been a strange year for most of us, partially overcoming the pandemic. The year started with a third national lockdown, the roll-out of vaccinations and our first real hope for things to come. While very few people flouted the rules at this point, there were incidents across the region which were policed extremely well by officers.

Leona was last seen in the Hele Park area of Newton Abbot just over a week ago at 9.15am on Monday 20 December. Officers believe she may have travelled to Bideford to be with her dad Billy Peach. They are now appealing for Mr Peach or Leona to get in touch with police or her family in Newton Abbot so that they know she is safe and well.