Devon

Citizens Advice Devon is urging local organisations which support or work with benefits claimants to ensure their staff and volunteers are fully up to speed with the new Universal Credit system as it continues its roll-out across the South West. This comes as Citizens Advice report a 50% or more increase in benefits enquiries in areas where universal credit has already been rolled out.

Universal Credit combines six benefits into one single payment, including Jobseeker’s Allowance and Working Tax Credits. It is currently being rolled out across the UK, and, by the end of September...

Your essential guide to What’s on in and around Exeter this weekend (21-23 September)

THEATRE

Company Wayne McGregor – Autobiography Friday, Exeter Northcott For 25 years, British choreographer and director Wayne McGregor has made choreography that interrogates life through the experience of the body. Now McGregor turns his attention to the body as archive, with a dance portrait illuminated by the sequencing of his own genome. https://exeternorthcott.co.uk

Jane Austen’s Persuasion: A Musical Drama Saturday, 7.30pm, The Palace Theatre, Paignton Following...

The Member of Parliament for Tiverton and Honiton, Neil Parish, visited the main headquarters of the international animal welfare charity, The Donkey Sanctuary, in Sidmouth last Thursday (30 August). Mr Parish’s visit came at the end of a bumper summer that saw visitor numbers to the charity’s headquarters increase by 18% compared to last year. The increase in visitors is largely down to the charity opening a new visitor centre and a 220-seater restaurant, The Kitchen, this year. Neil Parish MP, hosted by the charity’s CEO Mike Baker, enjoyed a guided tour of the main Slade House Farm site...

Student, Luke Spiller from Sidbury in Devon, has won a South West Growers Show (SWGS) Sponsored Scholarship as part of the David Colegrave Foundation (DCF) scholarship season.

Luke, who has just completed a Level 2 Horticulture course at Bicton College in Devon, has received the £1,500 South West Growers Show (SWGS) Sponsored Scholarship. Luke was top practical student on his course as well as being a nursery worker and gardener. He is now continuing his studies at Pershore College in Worcester, where he will complete Level 3 in Horticulture. His funding will help with...

It’s wartime, but the show must go on as Exeter Little Theatre Company (ELTC) brings the curtain up on one of theatre’s modern classics.

ELTC return to Exeter’s Barnfield Theatre this September to bring to life Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser, which captures the drama and relationships behind the scenes of a touring theatre company during World War II.

Taking centre stage is Sir (David Gunn-Johnson), the last of the great, but dying breed of English actor-mangers. However, when he arrives at the theatre in a bad shape and unsure what play his company are performing, or his...

Have you ever considered being part of a polar expedition? A world first polar expedition and one that is hugely purposeful and worthwhile? Probably not.

Well this is your chance!

Explorer, Jim McNeill, is looking for ordinary people, novices, from all walks of life and echelons of society to train to become modern-day explorers and join a team to reach The Northern Pole of Inaccessibility.

This is a significant place on the planet which has yet to be reached by humankind and therefore stands as the last real world first to be accomplished in the Polar Regions. It...

A team of Dartmoor National Park archaeologists and local volunteers are currently carrying out an excavation on a prehistoric site, near Haytor. The site at Holwell Tor, consists of an isolated Middle Bronze Age (around 1,500 BC) hut circle and two reaves (prehistoric boundaries). The first objective of the excavation is to investigate the function of the building; its isolation makes it unusual, so the team will try and determine whether it was a dwelling, a byre for animals, a store, workshop or something else entirely. They have now exposed the walls of the building and are already...

Last night (6 September) over one hundred guests across Devon came together to celebrate Send a Cow’s 30th anniversary at a special drinks reception at Windout Barn near Exeter. Guests gathered to hear the impact of the charity’s work with farming families in sub-Saharan Africa over the last three decades, and to celebrate the fact that over two million people have been lifted out of poverty. Jenny Reynolds, one of the organisation’s ambassadors, introduced the speakers for the evening expressing her passionate belief in Send a Cow’s ability to “help people help themselves out of poverty...

The Borrow Pit pond at Seaton Marshes in now fully accessible for everyone to enjoy. The pond, which can be found at Seaton Marshes local nature reserve offers a peaceful circular walk away from the hustle and bustle of Seaton and is a haven for wildlife.

The site, which is popular with families, was identified as a place requiring accessibility improvements and the Axe Vale and District Conservation Society (AV&DCS), who are the leaseholders of the pond, worked with site managers East Devon District Council countryside team, to put together a funding bid. The work was funded...