Devon

A public consultation on proposals to improve Kingskerswell Road between Newton Abbot and Kingskerswell is underway.

Decoy Industrial Estate, which is currently home to 25 businesses, is planned to expand to create around 500 new jobs.

Devon County Council and Teignbridge District Council are proposing the £2.6 million upgrade of the road in order to accommodate the potential extra traffic and the authorities will be consulting on the proposals until Friday 28 February.

Kingskerswell Road is currently the main access to Decoy Industrial Estate from the A380, but it...

More Devon schoolchildren than ever before will receive Bikeability cycle training in the coming financial year.

Devon County Council has successfully secured £300,000 of funding from the Department for Transport to train around 7,500 schoolchildren in the county.

Bikeability is a national initiative providing “cycling proficiency” for the 21st century which has been adopted by Devon County Council as the cycle training standard in the county.

Around 7,000 Devon pupils have taken part in the training over the past year. Since Devon County Council started delivering...

The 64 volunteer riders from emergency couriers Devon Freewheelers were over the moon when one of TV’s Emergency Bikers agreed to become the charity’s first patron.

Paramedic biker for the West Midlands Ambulance Service Mark Hayes, a familiar face to viewers of the Channel 5 series, took the decision to endorse the charity after visiting its headquarters and riding out with some of the team.

Devon Freewheelers CEO, Daniel Lavery said: “We’d been tweeting Mark for a while, and he decided to check us out. He was recently supplied with a new paramedic motorcycle and thought a...

Working in a local authority cemeteries department inspired Devon author Kate Vane’s new novel, Not the End.

Kate said, “The job made me think about our attitudes to death, particularly when someone died without friends and family and the local authority had to take charge of the funeral arrangements. Often they weren’t poor, or a loner, as people think. They had just outlived everyone who was close to them.”

Not the End is set in a fictitious Devon seaside town during a heatwave. It begins with the death of octogenarian sea swimmer Maud Smith, recently arrived from...

Several wartime explosives have been spotted on the South West coast including in Braunton in Devon.

Thought to have been swept ashore or uncovered by the recent storms, three devices have been reported in Devon, Somerset and Dorset last weekend.

Police have asked that people stay away from any suspicious objects found on the coast due to the possibility of more explosives being found.

Sgt Lee Henderson of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: “The ferocious seas and weather are thought to be responsible for uncovering or washing up these shells and there is clearly the...

On Friday 7 February, the Rt Hon Hugo Swire MP visited the WESC Foundation in Exeter to say a special thank you to one of the learners at the Specialist Centre for Visual Impairment. Jacob Towner, aged 14, was the lucky learner whose Christmas card design was chosen by the Member of Parliament for East Devon to send out his Christmas wishes.

The challenge was presented to the learners just prior to the Christmas period to come up with a suitable card design, and so Hugo was charged with the difficult decision of choosing a winner. Jacob was thrilled and proud to learn that his...

Escape the miserable weather into a wonderful alternative universe of animation this half-term.

Animated Exeter will be screening over 100 animated films from the UK’s young animators, UK graduates and stunning selection of independent talent from around the world in addition to screenings of big movies: from Studio Ghibli’s ‘From Up Poppy Hill’ to ‘Frozen’ and ‘The Wolf Children’.

The international competition ‘Wide World’ to find the best animation for children had an enormous response the results of which audiences of all ages will enjoy on Monday and Wednesday.

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As floods continue to inflict damage and disruption across the region, South West MEPs are being accused by Greens of voting against important measures to prevent and tackle flooding proposed in the EU in 2012.

An EU resolution in 2012 built on directives (EU law) that called on Member States to, ‘draw up maps identifying all areas posing a risk of flooding… and the potential damage for local populations, property and the environment’. EU law has also said that National States must ‘prepare and implement flood risk management plans for each river basin district’ and ‘consider where...

Heavy rain and gale-force winds continue to batter Devon. Severe amber warnings for wind and rain have been issued by the Met Office with exposed areas of coast set to be the worst affected. Several homes and business in Exmouth have again been damaged by the storms for the second time in the recent round of storms. There were also reports of snow on both Dartmoor and Exmoor earlier today further adding to difficult driving conditions in the area. Strong winds reaching up to 80mph in some areas are expected to hit Devon from 6pm and remain until the early hours of the morning.

The...