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A family on a power boat leaving harbour

All aboard the Freedom Boat Club

A Devon-based boat club says more people across Devon are turning away from traditional ownership in favour of flexible memberships that offer access to the sea without the expense and upkeep of owning a vessel.

Freedom Boat Club, which operates from Beacon Quay in Torquay Harbour, has reported growing interest as rising maintenance costs, storage fees and insurance bills make private boat ownership increasingly expensive for many households.

Instead, members pay a monthly fee to access a fleet of boats that are cleaned, fuelled, insured and maintained by the company....

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Council 'flaws' allowed paedophile to offend

Severe flaws in child safeguarding allowed a convicted paedophile to continue abusing two young victims, according to a report released today. The independent report, commissioned by the Devon Children Safeguarding Board covers the services repeated oversight during a five-year period of abuse and the circumstances leading up to the abuser coming into contact with his victims. The abuser, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was a known child sex offender prior to coming into contact with the family. He was jailed last year for a series of offences against his victims, including rape and...

Westpoint offers free for all charity days

This year marks Westpoint Exeter’s 25th birthday! And to kick off the celebrations Westpoint has announced it is offering four charities the chance to stage their own event at the venue for free.

Charities large and small are invited to apply for this unique opportunity with one of the south-west’s largest exhibition and entertainment venues. With free access to the Function Room, Wadsworth Pavilion log cabin and Showground, the charities can let their imaginations run wild.

The whole site lends itself to a variety of both indoor and outdoor events. Westpoint’s log cabin...

Beach management review delay

Work to collect data that will help to design a Beach Management Plan (BMP) for Sidmouth will take longer than expected, the project team announced this week.

The aims of the East Devon District Council-sponsored project are to ensure that Sidmouth's sea defences are performing as expected and to consider what may need to be done to reduce the rate of erosion at East Beach.

The working group managing the project now calculates that the information gathering exercise will take up to three months longer than was originally thought. The group has therefore postponed the next...

Food Festival fun for all

The Exeter Festival of South West Food and Drink is just over a week away and there are treats galore in store for visitors

Taking place from the 25th to the 27th of April, the annual event will once again be held in the courtyard of Exeter Castle and the surrounding Northernhay Gardens, in the heart of Exeter.

The Festival also includes two evening Festival After Dark Events featuring live music, chef demos and a great atmosphere. Now in its 11th year, the 2013 festival attracted around 20,000 visitors, with people flocking to Exeter to indulge in top-notch South West food...

University launches online egg hunt

An online Easter egg hunt in which players act as ‘predators’ to find hidden bird eggs will help scientists better understand camouflage and its evolution.

The new game, called Egglab, is a type of citizen science – a genuine scientific experiment that anyone around the world with a computer, smartphone or tablet can take part in, with the aim of understanding how different types of camouflage evolve in different habitat types.

It has been created by a BBSRC-funded research team led by Dr Martin Stevens of the University of Exeter, who have been investigating how camouflage...

Breathe Fest tickets now on sale

Tickets for Breathe Fest, a music festival to raise money needed for the potentially life-saving treatment of an Exeter woman with two terminal illnesses, have now gone on sale. The festival, to be held in Exeter on Friday, July 11, and Saturday, July 12 will help raise the necessary money to support mother-of-one Jo Smith travel to and pay for her treatment which is only available in Thailand. Jo, 36, has a unique combination of diseases and doctors say the odds of suffering both is over five billion to one. She needs a heart and lung transplant to have any hope of beating the blood...

All aboard for World Book Night

Book lovers in Devon are being invited to celebrate World Book Night at the County Council’s libraries next week.

This year, 250,000 World Book Night editions (12,500 copies of 20 titles) will be given by a network of volunteer reading enthusiasts and institutions focusing on reaching the 35.2% of the population who don’t read for pleasure

In Exeter, library staff and volunteers will be giving out free books outside Exeter Central Station from a specially set up pop-up library from noon-4pm just across the road from Exeter College. Great news for commuters who may be able...

Devon Sports Awards 2014 Finalists Revealed

The finalists in this year’s Exeter Foundation Devon Sports Awards, in association with Active Devon have been revealed. They include sportsmen and women, clubs, coaches and volunteers from all four corners of the county. The event will once again be hosted at Sandy Park, the home of LV= Cup winning Premiership rugby team the Exeter Chiefs. The competition was open to those involved in sport throughout Devon and, unlike similar awards, all the profits will be donated to charity. This year’s host is BBC Spotlight's Jenny Walrond and the special guest will be medal winning British athlete...

Exmouth Assault Appeal

Police in Exmouth are appealing for witnesses following an assault which took place in the town on Friday 11 April. At around 12.30pm in Normandy Close, a 35-year-old man was attacked while walking with a black ‘staffy’ dog. The local victim and suspect were known to each other. The victim suffered a broken nose and lacerations to his face in the assault. A 21-year-old local man was arrested on suspicion of assault and released on police bail until 10 June. Police are now appealing for anyone who may have seen the incident to please contact them. The victim is described as about 5’9” tall...

Young Exmouth father-of-two dead after Topsham collison

Police are appealing for witnesses to a collsion in Topsham after a 23-year-old from Exmouth died of his injuries

At around 3.40pm on Tuesday 15 April, police were called to a road traffic collision near to the Retreat Drive in Topsham to reports that a motorcyclist had been in collision with a car.

The vehicles involved were a Jeep and a Suzuki motorcycle.

On arrvial both the rider of the motorbike, a 46-yearold man and his pillion passenger were found to have received serious injuries in the collison . Tradgically, the 23-year-old pillion passenger, Stephen...

Local News

All aboard the Freedom Boat Club

Council 'flaws' allowed paedophile to offend

Westpoint offers free for all charity days

Beach management review delay

Food Festival fun for all

University launches online egg hunt

Breathe Fest tickets now on sale

All aboard for World Book Night

Devon Sports Awards 2014 Finalists Revealed

Exmouth Assault Appeal

Young Exmouth father-of-two dead after Topsham collison

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