Local News

Illegal tobacco with an on-the-street value of more than £63,000 has been seized in a day of raids across Exeter.

In a joint operation on Friday 5 February carried out by Devon and Somerset Trading Standards Service and HRMC, six businesses in St Thomas, the city centre and in Pinhoe were investigated by officers, sniffer dogs and their handlers.

A mixture of retail and licensed premises and a self storage business were raided. Further investigations are being conducted by Devon and Somerset Trading Standards Service for trademark breaches.

In total 80kgs of rolling...

Pret A Manger has announced it will be opening its first ever campus-based shop at the University of Exeter, with work starting on the site in the coming weeks. The shop, located in the Forum, is expected to open towards the end of April and follows the successful opening of Pret’s first outlet in Exeter last September. The shop will offer Pret’s popular menu of organic coffee and handmade natural food, including sandwiches, salads, wraps, baguettes and hot options – all of which will be made fresh each day in the shop’s on-site kitchen. Caroline Cromar, Pret’s Group Director of Food and a...

The Exeter Pound has launched a crowdfunding campaign today (15 February) in order to prepare the way for the community currency to go digital. Exeter launched its own paper currency in September 2015 and its reach has been growing ever since. There are now 131 local, independent businesses where shoppers can spend the local cash, and 9 exchange points across the city where the public can swap sterling for Exeter Pounds, at a 1:1 exchange rate. But the scheme is already looking to the next stage in innovation: a digital Exeter Pound. Exeter Pound user Hannah Watson explains, “there is a...

Painting the sunny beaches of Perth, Western Australia, or the changeable scenery of Devon?

For Devon Artist Network painter Julie Dunster, there is no contest - and she is celebrating her return home with her first solo art exhibition in this country, at the Boston Tea Party in Honiton from 27 February to 7 May 2016.

The exhibition will feature original oil paintings produced through sketches and photographs on location and completed in her Mid Devon studio. Julie captures the season’s differences, whether depicting avocets at tide’s out in deserted Dawlish Warren, or the...