Exeter

Stoptober – the 28-day challenge to support smokers to stop smoking is back, and with the introduction of new legislation making it illegal to smoke in a car with a person under 18, there are more reasons than ever to quit.

Devon County Council is backing the Stoptober campaign and, working with organisations and communities across the county to support people to quit, with a combination of events and activities, smoking cessation support and advice through its Devon Stop Smoking Service.

Currently over 100,000 people in Devon smoke. Research shows that smokers are two...

A groundbreaking exhibition inspired by the prominent English Renaissance poet Michael Drayton will open to the public at the University of Exeter on 7 October 2015. The free exhibition will take place in the Forum Street and will run until 20 November.

Previously on display at the Royal Geographical Society in London, the ‘Faerie Land: Michael Drayton’s Vision of Britain’ exhibition is dedicated to Drayton’s 15,000-line poem, Poly-Olbion, which describes the landscape, history and traditions of early modern England and Wales, county by county. The poem was published in 1612 and...

Devon ranks highly within the UK for recognising the immense value and potential for learning from its many unique heritage sites, according to a new report.

Britain’s heritage is much-loved but its value and potential is being underused in some places, says the independent RSA think-tank in association with the Heritage Lottery Fund, in a new heritage index published last week, (23 September 2015).

Devon is among all 379 local authority areas in England, Scotland and Wales that have been ranked for their heritage assets – built, archaeological, cultural and natural – the...

Trading standards officers have seized 21 ponies and foals from land near Exeter deemed too dangerous for them, to uphold an order of Exeter Crown Court.

In April 2015, following his conviction at Exeter magistrates Court for Animal Welfare and Horse Passport offences, 74 year old Leslie Weatherill of The Hams, Ide, received a 12 weeks custodial sentence suspended for 18 months.

The court had heard how Mr Weatherill kept his ponies on an area of scrub and woodland at Timridge Brake, Doddiscombsleigh, which, according to a national expert on horses, was inadequate for their...

Older people in the UK are disproportionately at risk from electrical hazards, according to research by leading charity, Electrical Safety First.

The Charity has found that a person over 60 is ten times more likely to die in a fire than somebody aged 17 to 24. And more than half of the accidental fire-related deaths last year in Great Britain were people aged 65 and olderii.

“Half of all accidental electrical fires are caused by misuse, so they are preventable,” said Phil Buckle, Director-General of Electrical Safety First. “

Elsie Van der Steen, 85, was left with...