Funding to pilot a project involving the Lyme area community in the creation of the Great Big Dorset Hedge has been approved by Lyme Regis Town Council. Julie Leah from Charmouth, who is one of the coordinators of the project on behalf of Dorset Climate Action Network, said: ‘We really appreciate the Town Council’s support […]
A controversial and chaotic political reign ended last week, as Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) leader Drew Mellor resigned after two years in the hotseat. His leadership was littered with scandal and leaves the fledgling council on the verge of bankruptcy, less than four years after its formation. His reversal comes just 80 days before […]
Brexit has been blamed for creating a shortfall in workers across many sectors, so it should be a good time to be looking for work, or to boost over-stretched pay-packets. The Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth hosted a ‘jobs fair’ at the start of February, giving employers a chance to showcase opportunities to interest potential new […]
Editor’s note: we are happy to publish unedited press releases for causes we support. Information on the official fundraiser for the Dartmoor National Park Authority appeal on the backpack camping ban. We are campaigning and fundraising to overturn the ban on backpack camping. We are the focus for public support to the National Park’s brave […]
Somerset’s politicians can’t sneak anything past Mick Fletcher when it comes to further and adult education… Tucked away at chapter 12, in a document only of interest to specialists in further education, is evidence of another quiet failure of Tory dogma. In a routine administrative update from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) two […]
A Somerset County Councillor is on a clean air mission. “I’m keen to learn the lessons of the pandemic” says Councillor Oliver Patrick, “and one of those lessons is that airborne diseases like Covid spread easily between people indoors where ventilation is poor.” Oliver’s clean air campaign began in September when he started raising money […]
More than 170 people from a total of 27 local organizations joined Extinction Rebellion North Devon (XRND) in Barnstaple on Saturday 28 January, to express their disgust and concerns about the polluted state of our rivers and coastline. The vibrant march, accompanied by a ‘sea serpent’ and local samba band, toured the town, stopping for […]
The UK consumes 79 million ready meals every single day with a market value of nearly £4bn. In the UK, 86 per cent of adults eat ready meals, and 3 in 10 eat ready meals at least once a week. If you have surveyed the range of ready meals in the freezers or in the […]
A protest took place at Teignmouth Back Beach on January 28 as part of the Dirty Water nationwide protests. This was a collaborative effort involving Extinction Rebellion and a broad range of campaigning groups and highlighted the ongoing pollution of our seas and inland waterways. As our MP wasn’t able to accept our invitation to […]
Submission to the Emergency Meeting of the Dartmoor National Park Authority, Friday 20 January 2023, Annie Dare. We felt as many people as possible should have the chance to read her words and reproduce them here with our thanks to Annie and all those campaigning for the protection of access to nature. Let’s go back […]
Local campaigners against the importing and dumping of sewage into the Exe estuary took a blue plaque to their MP Simon Jupp’s office in Exmouth on Saturday 28 January to highlight the shocking state of our bathing waters. ESCAPE (End Sewage Convoys And Poollution Exmouth), Transition Exmouth, Plastic Free Exmouth, Tidelines, Women Swimmin’ and TEDS swimming group joined […]
Dear West Country Voices, I remember when we had rights of way. When I was a child there was a right of way pathway between council houses and the fields of a farm at the very edge of a county boundary, marked by a stone right on the edge of our garden and our neighbour’s. […]
Note: Names have been changed to protect identity. Ed. After seven years of abuse and apathy, I’ve called time on my local campaign against Brexit. Beyond the bubble They call it reaching “beyond the bubble”. The key to successful campaigning, say social media experts, is to win over new groups of supporters beyond those naturally […]
Oliver Patrick, Somerset County Councillor (Coker Division) explains why clean air, indoors and out, should be a priority for legislators. This week I built my 20th Corsi-Rosenthal Box (below) using the funds donated through my GoFundMe. Fifteen of these DIY air filters have gone into schools and Early Year Foundation Stage settings in the Yeovil […]
There must have been a time when the Conservative party stood for conserving things, for responsible stewardship and avoiding needless waste. I know for sure that’s what Conservative friends of mine believe in. Business-like decision-making, investing in our future. But like many Tory voters, my friends now feel abandoned by a party stripped bare of […]
If Alexander Darwall, the landowner behind the wild camping judgement, had actually been hired to recruit numbers to the right to roam cause, he could not have done a better job. 3,000 people made the effort to travel to the village of Cornwood, climb the roads and tracks to Stall Moor, stand together in the […]
The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church gave special dispensation for Ukrainian refugees to celebrate Christmas on 25 December instead of on the customary date, so here in Somerset we treated our guests to an authentic English Christmas meal of turkey with all the trimmings, crackers, carols, and stockings. Our tradition of kissing under mistletoe […]
We are grateful to Guy Shrubsole for permission to reproduce this thread: If we’re to restore wild camping rights on Dartmoor, we need a new Right to Roam Act – and a government willing to pass it. New legislation is how we defend and extend public access to nature – anything less won’t cut it. […]
You will recall the brouhaha caused by the visit paid by Dorset police to two women hoping to attend a Chris Loder surgery in a nearby village. This Orwellian incident has gained extra significance with moves by the government to enshrine ‘pre-crime’ in the Public Order Bill, indicating a degree of paranoia about anyone who […]
The judge’s decision on the right to wild camp on Dartmoor has cause upset and outrage amongst walker, climbers, nature-lovers and Dartmoor-lovers from across the country. On Saturday, people will be coming together to protest the verdict. We predict that this will be a very big event indeed and we will be there. You must […]
On Jan 8, Sky News launched its new Westminster Accounts project with Tortoise Media. Together they have created an interactive database which makes the information reported to the Register of Members’ Interests more easily accessible so that we can really see who is receiving what sums and from whom, whether it’s in the form of […]
Although government seems to be in denial, it is clear that the NHS is in crisis – a consequence, in large part, of a decade of underfunding. The impact on the service nationally has been logged in detail, with the Financial Times offering a series of particularly thorough analyses. We wanted to find out […]
Dear Sheryll Murray You have often used the term “democracy” in your replies to me when challenged over your abysmal record as our MP – at least in the replies that weren’t just copied and pasted from the Ladybird book of lazy replies for MPs, at any rate. But, do tell me, can you prove […]
A new farming documentary launches on 5 January 2023 at the Oxford Real Farming Conference, taking a ‘behind the headlines’ look at the claims around the climate impact of livestock farming – and what this means for Cornwall. Food for Thought – the latest film from charity Cornwall Climate Care (cornwallclimate.org) – is presented by organic farmer Lisa […]
Only 14 per cent of England’s rivers have good ecological status, and the government has just, incredibly, allowed itself another 36 years to clean things up. Yet all is not lost: local citizen scientists are joining together to save streams, brooks, and rivers, and to start action now. Vicky Whitworth shares a tale of hope […]
On December 11, 2022, with only a handful of days’ notice and on one of the coldest days of the oncoming winter, 400 people gathered for a rally to save access to Dartmoor for wild campers. They were the young and the old, locals and those who’d travelled considerable distances, wild campers and non-wild campers […]
For the second part of our review, here are some articles which were read by hundreds rather than thousands. We think you might have missed some of them! We are particularly anxious that the passage of time and the power of propaganda does not wipe our memories of some of the terrible people who have […]
Our top ten reads for 2022 in reverse order. In at number 10, but thankfully NOT one to have had a go at being in at Number 10 (ho, ho), it’s that delightful ERG-er and Brexiter Sherryl Murray: At 9, a still sadly relevant piece on the abandoning of the clinically vulnerable to Covid risks: […]
As regular readers will know, it’s been a dramatic 2022 at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP). Our local leaders have nearly signed off for the holidays, and some may already be sitting in a dark corner, mumbling to themselves while nursing a litre-bottle of sherry. So this is a good moment to reflect on […]
The Shores of South Devon (SOSD) Marine Interest Life Association held an art and photography launch event on Friday 25 November at the Maltings Taphouse, Newton Abbot. The Exhibition features local intertidal marine life, recorded and photographed on south Devon shores over the last three years, in the geographical area between the River Exe and the River […]