The south-west of England is a hotbed of newly evolved tree species. There’s a sentence you probably thought you would never read, but it is true. In Britain, we have numerous tree species that are endemic to these isles; they are unique species found nowhere else on the planet, species that evolved here after the […]
Annie Hill-Smith: On 7 November at 10.00a.m. the Dartmoor National Park Authority’s Development Management Committee will hear the Tree Protection Order relating to the trees at Kenwyn. The Park’s Tree Officer is recommending that the order is granted. Hurray! The meeting will be at the DNPA’s office at Parke, just outside Bovey Tracey. I’ve lobbied […]
Do we truly have the kind of democracy in our country which is fit for the challenges of the 21st Century? Does our government fairly represent the views and aspirations of voters? How can we best tackle and mitigate the effects of climate change? All these questions, and more, will be up for debate in […]
Yes, young people have too much pressure and expectation and it feels like nobody listens to you. We get it and we want to help. Share your voice, get published, and pocket some (not much) cash in the South West Future Journalists Awards. West Country Voices, Totnes Pulse and the PRSD have put their collective […]
On the surface it looks like another ‘conservation versus industry’ planning controversy, with the odds predictably stacked against nature and wildlife. A multinational quarrying company wants to expand its operations in Devon, which will mean destroying a large forest. As the company prepares its application for planning permission, a group of local residents are fighting […]
There are plenty of very stupid and wasteful consumer shopping habits, but top of the list must be buying something quite expensive for one specific job or activity, using it solely for that purpose, and then storing it away in your shed or garage and forgetting about it. We’re talking about things like carpet cleaners, […]
WHAT: The Pilgrims: Our First Undocumented Immigrants demonstrationWHEN: Sunday 17 August 2025 1:00pm – 3:00pmWHERE: Mayflower Steps, The Barbican, Plymouth, PL1 2LR Protesting immigration raids, detainment camps, and deportation in the USAPlymouth, England – On Sunday, 17 August 2025, Indivisible Southwest and Americans for Action Bristol will join together to host a demonstration at the Mayflower […]
Friday, July 25, 6pm in Exeter city centre. Shops and cafes closing their doors for the evening, people heading home from work, others on their way to pubs and bars for the start of the weekend. None of them could miss the large crowd in Bedford Square, just off the main street, where hundreds of […]
I could feel the fear in a hall full of primary school parents in Totnes as they listened to campaigners going through the evidence about the impact of smartphones on kids at secondary school. The statistics are shocking: Nearly one in 10 children aged eight to 14 have watched online pornography Almost half of children […]
We hear a lot from politicians about immigration, and the debate is frankly toxic. So last week I went to Common Flora, near Diptford, to meet a group of asylum seekers who come here once a month to work on the land, share a communal lunch and sing together. I met a young man who’d […]
The scheme for five affordable homes by Darren Wills of Classic Builders was REJECTED. The community’s need outweighed the need for more housing. Statement from the Open Spaces Society at the bottom of this article. Please read! In the north of Plymouth, surrounded by a housing estate, there is a small, triangular patch of grass, […]
You may have heard about the ‘flex-collect’ three-year trial currently under way, which involves kerbside collections of specified soft plastics as part of the usual weekly collection by some councils. Recoup reported that the UK produced 309,000 tonnes of flexible plastic packaging, but only 8 per cent of this was collected for recycling. The aim […]
On Friday July 4, one year on from the last general election, Totnes Make Votes Matter (MVM) group were joined by the Mayor, Tim Bennett, at the Guildhall to mark the first anniversary of the most disproportionate general election in UK history. At that election the party that got a huge majority in Parliament and, […]
To really appreciate the importance of Exeter’s Respect Festival, just imagine some of the reactions if a two-day celebration of anti-racism, equality and diversity in the city was proposed for the first time today. It would prove divisive. Many people would love the idea, but you can bet there’d be some pushback, with the word […]
The review commissioned by Plymouth City Council (PCC) in order for them to learn lessons from the Armada Way tree felling fiasco is complete and the report has been published. It is damning. The Armada Way Independent Learning Review (AWILR) panel was tasked with looking into the decision to approve the development of Armada Way […]
George Monbiot’s article in The Guardian (27 May 2025) will resonate with many on the progressive side of politics, and especially with those who are involved in street campaigns to counter the alarming rise of the far-right. When we talk to people on the streets of south Devon’s towns, we consistently pick up a growing […]
Inspired by a meditation, devised through an unexpected collaboration, and created on a site where it fitted like the missing piece of a jigsaw: the Tipton St John labyrinth is almost a metaphor for itself. If that seems a bit complicated – welcome to the multi-layered world of labyrinths. A labyrinth is not a maze, […]
Thousands of people are expected to rally at noon on Haytor on Dartmoor this bank holiday Monday (26 May) to call on the government to pass a new Right to Roam Act. The rally comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s unanimous verdict upholding the right to wild camp on Dartmoor, quashing a long-running […]
It may not look like a major uprising , but this is part of something huge. This was Exeter’s first Tesla Takedown protest against Elon Musk’s assault on democracy and human rights in the US, and his wider support for the far right. On Saturday, 3 May, local activists including Devon-based Americans demonstrated outside the […]
This is Piles Copse, the largest remaining fragment of high-ground temperate rainforest on Dartmoor. It’s a tiny speck of green in a dismal, human-made desert. Prepare yourselves for a story of breath-taking perversity. Even in fairly recent history, it used to be much bigger, to judge by two lines of evidence: a few surviving oaks […]
Summer is Ready! Field System’s May Day Celebration, Thursday 1 May and Saturday 3 May. This Beltane, why not head for the historic stannary town of Ashburton, where Field System Gallery and Ashburton Arts Centre present a town-wide and inclusive celebration of the arrival of summer. This is a May Day celebration for our time. […]
Nature-rich peatland habitats are to be better protected under plans set out by the Government today (Monday 31 March), which would ban burning on peat in the uplands, improving health and wellbeing of people in nearby communities. This is a very welcome statement from the government today. It recognises the value of our precious peatlands […]
Dear Editor, Seaton Hospital is an issue in the local elections on May 1. The hospital steering committee submitted a proposal for using the threatened wing to NHS Property Services nine months ago. They have still not given us an answer. We have been fighting to save the hospital since 2016, when they first threatened […]
“Wherever it is found, hunger highlights the fault lines of inequality that run through that society.” In our society, that could indicate the effects of political austerity measures, including the latest benefit cuts. On a global level, it could point to the people in the world’s poorest nations whose crops are being destroyed by the […]
Celebration lunches, chocolates and a glass of fizz will be on the menu this Sunday, 30 March, as families get together for Mothering Sunday. But for one group of women in Plymouth, the table will be bare – except for leaflets, stickers and other material demanding an end to child hunger and poverty. Six local […]
I’m incandescent, furious, overflowing with rage at Dartington Trust’s ability to continually make the wrong decisions, decisions that show they are out of touch with pretty much everything. In particular, it has just been announced that they plan to revoke the wonderful Agroforestry Research Trust’s lease on their extraordinary temperate forest garden on the Dartington […]
“Tax our wealth” – that’s the message from millionaires across the UK who are taking their campaign out on the road ahead of the Government’s Spring Statement. Patriotic Millionaires UK has commissioned a fleet of mobile billboards to tour towns and cities across the country to tell people and constituency MPs: a tax of two […]
UPDATE: The latest from Martin. Not great. “This afternoon our landlords have released a public statement (https://www.dartington.org/forest-garden-update/) which contain a number of misleading statements which we feel we have to correct. “We have had constructive and productive discussions with Martin over the past week.” No, we had one meeting on Weds 19th March when positive noises […]
“We watched as the beaches emptied, and the car parks emptied, and there was a sense of ‘this cannot keep happening’.” It was the worst possible time for yet another serious sewage pollution incident in Exmouth. On Wednesday, 14 August 2024 – right in the middle of the summer tourist season – a sewage pipe […]
A record-breaking 74 Tiverton Tree Team volunteers turned up on February 8, 2025, to help create a new wildlife recovery zone on the banks of the river Exe just outside Tiverton. At the top of the site, running parallel to the existing Devon hedge, a 200 metre line of hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, dogwood, elderberry, dog […]