Exeter

Exeter’s original gourmet burger restaurant is celebrating selling its 60,000th meal by saying thank you to the customer who bought it.

Electrician Shane Howe took his girlfriend Amy Hudson to Urban Burger, on Queen Street for dinner.

And after being served his order, the 37-year-old was told he had just bought the 60,000th meal, and had won a free burger every month for a year.

Shane, who lives in Exeter, changed his booking time several times before coming in and, unwittingly, hitting the ‘landmark’ figure.

Shane said: “I thought it was a wind up first off...

A substantial donation from Betfair means paralysed jockey Sarah Gaisford, who broke her back in a race riding fall at Exeter in 2007, looks set to smash the £20,000 target she set herself to raise for the Injured Jockeys’ Fund at the racecourse this Thursday.

Sarah will ride a circuit of the racecourse where she had her tragic accident, and racegoers are being given free entry if they donate £15 to the IJF and take part in a two mile sponsored walk around the service track while Sarah rides on the course.

Betfair sponsored the race when she had her life-changing fall eight...

Hospiscare nurses and doctors looked after 624 people and their families, living with a terminal illness in the Exeter area, during the past year.

The local charity which offers free expert help and support to local people and their families is joining 100 other hospices across the UK this week raising awareness of their work; it is Hospiscare Week during 6 October to 12 October.

Teams of Hospiscare nurses and doctors, specialising in end of life care, visit people in their own homes, in hospitals, in care homes and give 24-hour support at the Hospiscare Exeter hospice, as...

Exeter politicians from all parties are braving a challenge to live for a whole day without electricity to help get people thinking about their energy use.

The Pull the Plug challenge is being organised by Exeter Community Energy (ECOE) and will see local councillors Rosie Denham and Adrian Fullam and parliamentary candidates Diana Moore and Dom Morris go a full day with no phone, car, TV, laptop – or indeed anything else with a current.

The challenge lasts for the whole of Sunday 12 October and ECOE want as many people as possible to take part.

Everyone doing so is...

An Exeter fugitive has been arrested in Spain and returned to prison following a lengthy investigation to locate him. Scott Kelly, 33, was convicted of a violent assault in March 2005 after stabbing a man in the back during a dispute in a bar in Exeter. He was sentenced to seven years in prison with an extended five year licence. Kelly was released in October 2013 but he failed to abide by the conditions of his licence and fled to Spain. The disappearance prompted a multi-agency investigation to establish his whereabouts, which saw Devon and Cornwall Police work in collaboration with...

An Exeter clinic is one of the first in the UK to be officially accredited as safe and qualified to carry out non-surgical cosmetic treatments like dermal fillers. Legally, anyone in the UK can carry out these kinds of treatments and the industry has come under huge pressure to provide protection for patients from cowboy practitioners. Save Face is the first organisation in the UK to provide a register of accredited practitioners – all of whom have been visited and assessed for professionalism, qualifications and safety to give patients peace of mind when booking treatments. Radiance...

One of Devon’s largest independent holiday parks is celebrating its busiest summer ever.

Ladram Bay Holiday Park, situated on the Jurassic coast between Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton, saw nearly 6,000 holidaymakers stay in July and August.

The business, which has been in the same family for four generations since Devon farmer Bill Carter took on part of a small tenanted farm in 1942, had 7,640 people stay over the two summer months, with 1,800 bookings taken for a total of 15,300 ‘nights’. Revenue was up eight per cent on the same period last year.

Director Zoe...

There has been a dramatic upsurge in debt worries among people in the Exeter area, according to new figures released by StepChange Debt Charity. In the first six months of this year, 648 residents in the Exeter postcode area sought debt advice from the charity’s helpline compared to 580 in the same period last year, an increase of 12 per cent.

The figures point to a further strain on household budgets, with those contacting the charity from the Exeter area an average of £11 per month worse off than the same time last year. The average person in Exeter seeking the charity’s help was...

With just one in five hate crimes being reported in Devon, local agencies say more needs to be done to encourage its victims to come forward.

Progress is being made to gain the trust of minority groups, and in raising awareness of hate crime, which is resulting in a rise in reporting to Police.

But under-reporting means that crimes against disabled or gay people or people of minority race for example are going unnoticed, leaving victims unsupported and perpetrators unchallenged.

Saturday 11 to the 18 October sees Devon Hate Crime Awareness Week, and the members of...

A study published in Nature Geoscience today shows that air pollution has had a significant impact on the amount of water flowing through many rivers in the northern hemisphere.

The paper shows how such pollution, known as aerosols, can have an impact on the natural environment and highlights the importance of considering these factors in assessments of future climate change.

The research resulted from a collaboration between scientists at the Met Office, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, University of Reading, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique in France, and the...