Local News

This year Living Coasts, Torquay’s coastal zoo and aquarium, is celebrating fish in all their forms. Fantastic Fish is a year-long event promoting sustainable fishing and a greater awareness of just how great fish are. There will be fish trails, fish talks and fish arts and crafts.

Clare Rugg, operations manager at the charity, said: “Some fish species are part of the collection - others are food! Fish are amazing, vital, beautiful and useful.”

The Living Coasts aquarium has a collection of fish from local waters, from the mangrove regions of the world and a collection of...

Opposition councillors have responded angrily to the decision made by Cabinet Member Will Mumford to close Devon County Council’s children’s homes at Birchen Lane (Tiverton) as well as Rifford Road and Blossom Corner (both Exeter). They have ‘called in’ the decision, which means that it must be considered by the People’s Scrutiny Committee, a special meeting of which is to take place on 11th March. There was anger too about the move to bring this meeting forward from its calendared date of 3rd April without consulting all committee members.

Labour group leader Cllr Richard Westlake...

Farmland prices in the South West hit yet another record high during the final six months of 2013, having jumped around seven percent in the space of a year, says the latest RICS/RAU Rural Land Market Survey H2 2013.

During the second half of last year, the average cost of farmland in the region rose to £7,763 per acre, hitting a record high for the eighth consecutive period. The cost of land is now seven percent higher than during the same period in 2012 when an acre cost, on average, just under £7,250.

Growth in prices has been driven by the on-going surge in demand from...

The first water reed to be harvested in Devon in 25 years has been cut by scythe on reed beds opposite Topsham on the Exe estuary. Scythe practitioner, Chris Riley spent a labour intensive week harvesting just over an acre of water reed, which can reach up to 10ft high. “Water reed is an untapped resource, because of its inaccessibility and the manual labour involved in cutting it.”

Chris encourages the resurgence of scythe use: “It’s so important to keep rural skills alive and there aren’t many people with the skill and energy to harvest large areas of reed with a scythe.” For...