The summer holidays got off to a ‘flying’ start for local youngsters when EDDC’s Countryside Team joined other local organisations with a rural theme at the annual Natural Seaton Festival.

The event was organised by the Seaton Visitor Centre Trust to celebrate the geological and ecological wealth of the town.

The first EDDC Countryside event of the weekend was Meet the Bats led by Fiona Mathews, Senior Lecturer in Mammalian Biology at Exeter University. Eleven of our 15 native species of bat have been recorded on the Axe Estuary Wetlands in Seaton, and electronic bat...

Best friends and colleagues, Karen King & Clare Aldrich, faced their fears to experience the exhilaration of a tandem Skydive and raise over £1,380 for Exeter Leukaemia Fund! Karen & Clare, who both work at North Tawton Primary School, were securely harnessed to their instructors on 21 June as they jumped from 15,000ft. They were able to take in views including the South & North Devon coastlines, Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset and the Bristol Channel to South Wales! Following the Skydive Clare said, “It’s one of the bravest things I’ve ever done and one of the best experiences I’ve...

The UK’s leading marine charity says people visiting the beach this summer should keep their eyes peeled for wobbly visitors who act as a barometer of the seas. After a slow start this year, jellyfish blooms started increasing in June and July as our coastal waters warmed up.

Every summer hundreds of reports of jellyfish sightings are made to the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) National Jellyfish Survey, which is in its 10th year. During the last decade, 7,500 jellyfish reports have been made by the public to MCS. The survey is providing valuable information about where and...

Stagecoach South West has announced that, starting 30 September 2013, they are introducing two brand new ‘Stagecoach Gold’ routes which will operate between Torquay, Paignton, Totnes and Plymouth or Dartmouth. The introduction of the flagship ‘5-star’ brand to Devon is a coup for customers, reserved for only a select number of locations across the country.

The two ‘Gold’ routes will operate up to every 30 minutes, 7 days a week between Torquay, Paignton and Totnes. The routes will then connect the English Riviera to either Dartmouth or Plymouth via Ivybridge, with each location...

Parents are being warned of an 'asthma attack time-bomb' potentially facing the 1.1 million children with asthma in the UK when they go back to school after the summer holidays.

Leading charity Asthma UK has today released alarming new data showing a dramatic surge in children's hospital admissions that coincides with their return to school.

In England, more children are rushed to hospital with an asthma attack in mid-September than any other week during the year. Over 4.6 times as many children in England were hospitalised because of their asthma in the third week of...

A beach at a popular tourist island in Thailand's eastern sea was plagued by a 50 ton oil spill, and despite continuous attempts to clean up the oil up over the weekend, tourists on Samet island were warned to stay away from the beach.

About 50 tonnes of oil spilled into the sea off Rayong province Saturday morning after a leak sprung in a pipeline operated by PTT Global Chemical Plc, a subsidiary of state-owned oil and gas company PTT Plc, the AP reported.

Hundreds of people, including navy personnel, environment officials and villagers were battling to clean the oil from...