Devon

Devon and Cornwall magistrates urged to stop jailing women

Magistrates in Devon and Cornwall are almost twice as likely to send a woman to prison as courts in other parts of England and Wales, figures reveal today (9 July).

The Howard League for Penal Reform has released for the first time data which shows how sentencing rates for women vary from county to county.

The figures suggest that, while many magistrates’ courts are making good use of community sentences which help cut crime and turn women’s lives around, other benches are imposing prison terms unnecessarily in some cases.

Courts in Devon and Cornwall imposed...

Future of East Devon District Council offices to be debated in July

Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted: Mon, 07/08/2013 - 10:17pm

Options for the future of East Devon District Council’s offices will next be debated on Wednesday 17 July at Cabinet. Subject to the outcome of this meeting it will be followed by a special face-to-face event with local stakeholders on 26 July.

The council is inviting representatives from around East Devon, to join councillors and senior officers for a special event where they’ll hear more about the council’s objectives for the project and can talk about any decisions made by the Cabinet.

Among those invited to the event on 26 July are representatives from Chambers of...

How Cranbrook’s first play area will look

Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted: Mon, 07/08/2013 - 10:12pm

East Devon District Council are delighted to announce that the children of Cranbrook have now selected a preferred design for their £240,000 play space, the first in the new community.

The chosen design which includes, sensory play boards, an explorers Island with boat and barrel, animal rockers and a toddler play house was designed by Eibe, a specialist play equipment company.

Eibe was one of five companies who were invited to produce design concepts for the community to vote on. This was part of an ongoing consultation process during which the children had previously...

Clean sweep of outstanding judgements for Broadhembury Primary

An East Devon church school has achieved a clean sweep of outstanding judgements from Diocese of Exeter inspectors.

Broadhembury Church of England Primary was rated outstanding in four key areas following the inspection:

The school was said to be outstanding at:

• Meeting the needs of all learners • The effectiveness of its leadership and management • Its distinctiveness and effectiveness as a church school • The impact of collective worship on the school community

Outstanding is the highest judgement that inspectors can make.

It follows a similar...

Turf cutting marks start of Grand Western Canal repairs

An official turf cutting was held at the Grand Western Canal on Monday (8 July) to mark the start of restoration work.

The Canal suffered a serious breach of its northern bank near the Swing Bridge at Halberton on 21 November last year, after water spilled over the top of the embankment during torrential downpours and flooding.

It is estimated that more than 16 million litres of water (the equivalent of more than 100,000 bathtubs or 6.5 Olympic swimming pools) flowed through the 23-metre wide breach onto neighbouring farmland. Emergency services spent days pumping water...

Urgent appeal to Devon during National Transplant Week

There are 184 people in Devon waiting for a transplant and 31 Devon residents have died due to the shortage of organs in the last four Years*. NHS Blood and Transplant is highlighting the figures to encourage people to pass on their donation wishes to their loved ones during National Transplant Week 2013 (8-14 July). This year’s theme is Pass It On, stressing the importance of having a conversation about organ donation as well as joining the NHS Organ Donor Register. To encourage people, some of the UK’s best known communicators are showing the public how important and easy it is to do....

Say 'No' to GMO

Why don't multi-national corporations like MONSANTO, keep their hands off our food, they are interfering with nature with some devastating results for humanity.

We must know what is in our foods, our children are suffering as are we and it is not going to get better until this madness is stopped.

Here is the latest depressing news: http://www.naturalnews.com/041014_Monsanto_seed_patents_GMOs.html#ixzz2YGaVdDwA

Read it and weep, this affects every single one of us.

Owen Paterson (our so called Environment Secretary) is becoming the latest in a line of pests...

Exeter Lives: Penny Nicholson

Name: Penny Nicholson

And what do you do?

I'm a web designer and food blogger. I run a local food order and collect scheme with Shillingford Organics and the Hub on the Green and am a volunteer with Transition Exeter. I have also just created the Exeter Trails website ( www.exetertrails.co.uk ) and have lots of ideas for its further development to really put independent business on the map!

How would you describe yourself in 5 words?

Happy to live in South West

How would you describe Exeter in 5 words?

Lovely, friendly, unique,...

Devon GPs celebrate 65 years of the NHS

Authored by NEWDevonCCG
Posted: Fri, 07/05/2013 - 9:50am

Doctors in Devon are celebrating the 65th birthday of a “national treasure” today – the NHS.

Since the NHS launched on 5 July 1948 it has continually developed and in April this year groups of GPs and clinicians were given the responsibility of buying most healthcare services, including acute hospitals and mental health services.

In Devon, the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is made up of member GP practices, was set up, giving clinicians and patients more of a say in local healthcare development to get services right for their...

Warming and greening Devon's churches

Devon’s churches are getting greener. Eighty churches from all over the South West took part in a pioneering conference to look at heating their buildings more effectively. Churches are encouraged to carry out energy audits or benchmarking to determine both the use of their buildings and also energy demands, with a view to making more efficiencies in the future. The new national energy- measuring scheme aims to grade our churches like fridges and to improve each year from F towards A ratings. The conference was held at the recently re-ordered St. Stephen’s church in Exeter High Street,...

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