Section: Region

Somerset local councillor offers FREE air monitors to local businesses

Editor-in-chief

A Somerset County Councillor is on a clean air mission. “I’m keen to learn the lessons of the pandemic” says Councillor Oliver Patrick, “and one of those lessons is that airborne diseases like Covid spread easily between people indoors where ventilation is poor.” Oliver’s clean air campaign began in September when he started raising money […]

Are you turning up the heat on plastic?

Plastic Free Axminster -

The UK consumes 79 million ready meals every single day with a market value of nearly £4bn. In the UK, 86 per cent of adults eat ready meals, and 3 in 10 eat ready meals at least once a week. If you have surveyed the range of ready meals in the freezers or in the […]

Boo to poo!

Michael Puleston

A protest took place at Teignmouth Back Beach on January 28 as part of the Dirty Water nationwide protests. This was a collaborative effort involving Extinction Rebellion and a broad range of campaigning groups and highlighted the ongoing pollution of our seas and inland waterways. As our MP wasn’t able to accept our invitation to […]

Stop the ‘turd trucks’ polluting our rivers and beaches!

Editor-in-chief

Local campaigners against the importing and dumping of sewage into the Exe estuary took a blue plaque to their MP Simon Jupp’s office in Exmouth on Saturday 28 January to highlight the shocking state of our bathing waters.  ESCAPE (End Sewage Convoys And Poollution Exmouth), Transition Exmouth, Plastic Free Exmouth, Tidelines, Women Swimmin’ and TEDS swimming group joined […]

Raw nerves: challenging Leave voters in a rural community

Simon Chater

Note: Names have been changed to protect identity. Ed. After seven years of abuse and apathy, I’ve called time on my local campaign against Brexit. Beyond the bubble They call it reaching “beyond the bubble”. The key to successful campaigning, say social media experts, is to win over new groups of supporters beyond those naturally […]

Open the windows to shut the door on Covid-19

Oliver Patrick
one window open in an office block

Oliver Patrick, Somerset County Councillor (Coker Division) explains why clean air, indoors and out, should be a priority for legislators. This week I built my 20th Corsi-Rosenthal Box (below) using the funds donated through my GoFundMe. Fifteen of these DIY air filters have gone into schools and Early Year Foundation Stage settings in the Yeovil […]

Roads aren’t the only things falling apart under this government…

Simon Oldridge

There must have been a time when the Conservative party stood for conserving things, for responsible stewardship and avoiding needless waste. I know for sure that’s what Conservative friends of mine believe in. Business-like decision-making, investing in our future. But like many Tory voters, my friends now feel abandoned by a party stripped bare of […]

Ukrainian Christmas in the UK

Alan Wilson

The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church gave special dispensation for Ukrainian refugees to celebrate Christmas on 25 December instead of on the customary date, so here in Somerset we treated our guests to an authentic English Christmas meal of turkey with all the trimmings, crackers, carols, and stockings. Our tradition of kissing under mistletoe […]

We need a new Right to Roam Act

Guy Shrubsole

We are grateful to Guy Shrubsole for permission to reproduce this thread: If we’re to restore wild camping rights on Dartmoor, we need a new Right to Roam Act – and a government willing to pass it. New legislation is how we defend and extend public access to nature – anything less won’t cut it. […]

Wild camping on Dartmoor – what next?

Editor-in-chief

The judge’s decision on the right to wild camp on Dartmoor has cause upset and outrage amongst walker, climbers, nature-lovers and Dartmoor-lovers from across the country. On Saturday, people will be coming together to protest the verdict. We predict that this will be a very big event indeed and we will be there. You must […]

Westminster Accounts part 1: who is funding Devon’s MPs?

Rachel Marshall

On Jan 8, Sky News launched its new Westminster Accounts project with Tortoise Media. Together they have created an interactive database which makes the information reported to the Register of Members’ Interests more easily accessible so that we can really see who is receiving what sums and from whom, whether it’s in the form of […]

Medical crisis and moral injury – the state of the NHS in Somerset

Mick Fletcher

Although government seems to be in denial, it is clear that the NHS is in crisis – a consequence, in large part, of a decade of underfunding.  The impact on the service nationally has been logged in detail, with the Financial Times offering a series of particularly thorough analyses.   We wanted to find out […]

Letters to Sheryll Murray MP on strikes, the NHS and nurses’ pay

Carl Garner

Dear Sheryll Murray You have often used the term “democracy” in your replies to me when challenged over your abysmal record as our MP – at least in the replies that weren’t just copied and pasted from the Ladybird book of lazy replies for MPs, at any rate.  But, do tell me, can you prove […]

Turning a river nightmare into an achievable dream

Vicky Whitworth

Only 14 per cent of England’s rivers have good ecological status, and the government has just, incredibly, allowed itself another 36 years to clean things up. Yet all is not lost: local citizen scientists are joining together to save streams, brooks, and rivers, and to start action now. Vicky Whitworth shares a tale of hope […]

The stars are ours – the Save Dartmoor rally

Andrew Cooney

On December 11, 2022, with only a handful of days’ notice and on one of the coldest days of the oncoming winter, 400 people gathered for a rally to save access to Dartmoor for wild campers. They were the young and the old, locals and those who’d travelled considerable distances, wild campers and non-wild campers […]

Review of 2022 – part 2: the articles you may have missed

Editor-in-chief

For the second part of our review, here are some articles which were read by hundreds rather than thousands. We think you might have missed some of them! We are particularly anxious that the passage of time and the power of propaganda does not wipe our memories of some of the terrible people who have […]

Review of 2022 – part 1: most-read articles

Editor-in-chief
fireworks depicting 2022

Our top ten reads for 2022 in reverse order. In at number 10, but thankfully NOT one to have had a go at being in at Number 10 (ho, ho), it’s that delightful ERG-er and Brexiter Sherryl Murray: At 9, a still sadly relevant piece on the abandoning of the clinically vulnerable to Covid risks: […]

A not-so-merry Christmas from BCP Council

Adam Sofianos

As regular readers will know, it’s been a dramatic 2022 at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP). Our local leaders have nearly signed off for the holidays, and some may already be sitting in a dark corner, mumbling to themselves while nursing a litre-bottle of sherry. So this is a good moment to reflect on […]

Shores of South Devon exhibition

Michael Puleston

The Shores of South Devon (SOSD) Marine Interest Life Association held an art and photography launch event on Friday 25 November at the Maltings Taphouse, Newton Abbot. The Exhibition features local intertidal marine life, recorded and photographed on south Devon shores over the last three years, in the geographical area between the River Exe and the River […]

Take up your Pennon/South West Water shares!

Anthea Simmons

If you are a South West water customer, you should have received a letter offering a you a small sum of money or shares in South West Water’s parent company, Pennon Group. Being a shareholder gives you the right to attend the annual general meeting and ask questions of the board of directors. It is […]

All that glitters…

Plastic Free Axminster -

‘Tis the approaching season of glitter, foil and glue! We all like a spot of sparkle but if anyone wants to indulge with twinkly bits of glitter and plastic bits and bobs on cards and wrapping paper, recipients of the aforementioned, just please don’t put them in the recycling box! Why not put a nice […]

The Loder/police/sewage saga – the waters just got murkier

Anthea Simmons

More than 30,000 people have read the story of the police visit to two women, and if you haven’t – you can catch up here! Fran Swan, of Fishpond, and Beverley Glock, of Lyme Regis, had registered for a public meeting for Chideock residents, which was held on Friday 25 November. They had to give […]

The stars are for everyone

Andrew Cooney

Our rights are currently under attack as never before in my lifetime.  The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill so curtails the right to protest that it permits your arrest merely on the suspicion that you might carry out some act against the Establishment.  The Borders and Nationalities Bill makes it easier to strip someone […]

The future? It’s flinty!

Stuart Reynolds

BREAKING: a public inquiry is due to get underway at Newton Abbot Town Hall today into the controversial proposal to reopen the Bullers Hill Quarry at  Haldon, near Teignmouth. The site is designated as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) as it contains outcrops of flint-bearing gravels. It is one of the few places […]