Chiefs name side to face Saints in LV= Cup Final

Home turf, capacity crowd and the hopes of a rugby-mad region right behind them - it seems Exeter Chiefs have all the ingredients to serve up a real treat in Sunday's LV= Cup final at Sandy Park (1pm).

Standing in the way of silverware for Rob Baxter and his team, however, are Premiership rivals Northampton Saints, themselves no strangers to the big occasion and indeed former winners of the competition in 2010.

Sat at the summit of English rugby's top division, the Saints have certainly been the team that have set the benchmark this season. Jim Mallinder's men - even...

Crews called to Marsh Barton blaze

Crew from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service were called to extinguish a baler which was on fire at Exeter's Marsh Barton Industrial Estate this morning.

An appliance from Danes Castle and from Middlemoor attended the incident, at Devon Contract Waste Marsh Barton, at 8am this morning.

Firefighters attended the scene after reports of a baler on fire.

On arrival they found a fire involving a plastics baling machine within an industrial building. Fire crews extinguished the fire using one hose reel jet.

The cause of the fire is believed to be...

Exeter student on Royal Marine exercise in Norway

Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted: Sat, 03/15/2014 - 10:37am

It is one of the most challenging environments in the world - snowbound for months at a time and full of life threatening hazards - but an Exeter student has taken it all in his stride.

Every year elements of the Royal Marines decamp the UK and move briefly to Norway's Arctic Circle where they undergo training in cold weather warfare.

Exeter sports student, Sam Logan, is one of 40 Royal Marine reservists in Norway for the first time undergoing phase one training learning vital Arctic survival skills.

Over the course of two weeks the commandos have to adapt to...

Plans to combat £1m overspend in Exeter housing

Authored by Huw Oxburgh
Posted: Fri, 03/14/2014 - 4:43pm

Exeter City Council has set out a new action plan on how it maintains and manages housing in response to a £1 million overspend from the council’s housing revenue account (HRA).

The action plan could see some tenants prevented from transferring into a new council house or even face eviction or fines if their property is in a poor state of repair.

The council will also look to better understand the reasons behind the overspend ahead of a major restructure of the service due to begin later this year.

Cllr Rob Hannaford, Lead councillor for Housing and Customer Access...

Changes to recycling and rubbish collections in Mid Devon

All Mid Devon households will soon be receiving a new collection calendar as the Council reorganises its recycling and rubbish collections rounds to become more efficient and reduce costs.

Up until now many people have had to remember two different days of the week for your brown bins/black sacks and your black recycling box. The good news is that from Monday 31 March there will be one regular day of the week for each collection. This could mean that your collection day(s) will change.

Waste & Transport Manager Simon Newcombe said: “We’ve done lots of preparation to...

Pupils' banners on display in Cathedral

Some 750 children from schools around Exeter have been working with education officers to create stunning banners on the theme of Reading the Cathedral.

Exeter Cathedral marks its 900th anniversary this year and the banners are on display in the nave.

The exhibition has been sponsored by the Exeter Episcopal Trust.

Education officer for the Diocese of Exeter, Tatiana Wilson, said it was wonderful how the Cathedral will still so important to young people’s lives in Exeter.

“It has been lovely to celebrate deep thinking and learning with children and their...

MPs open new school at Bicton College

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Rt Hon Owen Paterson, MP, and local MP for East Devon, Rt Hon Hugo Swire, MP, opened the new Animal Husbandry School at Bicton College this week to offer their support for a new era of animal care education which includes the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

A £2,880,000 grant from the Skills Funding Agency has paved the way for the build. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust is the leading national charity working to conserve and protect the United Kingdom's rare native breeds of farm animals from extinction.

RBST Chief...

10 inventions that have had the most impact on human society

Authored by Newshound
Posted: Fri, 03/14/2014 - 11:26am

Great minds often tend to change the whole world with just one invention. We would still be sitting by a candle and writing a letter to get in touch with a friend, as opposed to sitting in front of the computer and logging into Facebook to contact a friend if it wasn’t for certain inventions that were so incredible that they had enough impact to change the whole world forever. Today, we point out the 10 inventions that have had the most impact on human society.

1 - The Wheel

The wheel is often regarded as the invention that paved the way for all other...

Entries open for Devon’s first Rainbow Run

Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted: Fri, 03/14/2014 - 10:58am

Entries are now open for the UK’s craziest, most colourful sponsored 5k event for all the family – the Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) Rainbow Run at Exeter Racecourse on Sunday 8 June.

You can run it. You can walk it. You can even skip it.

However you choose to do it – the organisers guarantee you will cross the finishing line a vision of colour and wearing the biggest smile.

Just make sure you wear a white t-shirt, and clothes you don't mind getting messy because as you pass through the five paint stations, you will showered with different coloured powder...

Teachers urged to teach British Sign Language

Authored by chloe2030
Posted: Fri, 03/14/2014 - 10:30am

Thousands of children across the UK will be able to learn 11 basic phrases in British Sign Language thanks to a video created by a national charity.

On March 18th 2014, thousands of deaf people across the UK will celebrate the 11th anniversary of British Sign Language (BSL) being recognised as an official language in its own right.

National charity and the UK’s leading awarding body in deaf communication qualifications, Signature, is marking this day by calling for school teachers to take fifteen minutes out of their day to teach students 11 basic BSL signs. The charity has...

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