Dawlish News' Posts

A community project breathing new life into coastal and market towns in South Devon has won a prestigious award. The Market and Coastal Towns initiative, set up in 2000 and led by the South West of England Regional Development Agency and other key partners to encourage the economic, social and environmental regeneration of market towns, was given the award in the "Planning for Sustainable ...

A volunteer treasurer who fleeced a south Devon youth soccer club of £12,000 started an 18-month jail sentence on Saturday. The funds, raised by parents and children, were taken by accountant Anthony Kerr after he joined the club as volunteer treasurer in 2000. The 54-year-old told police that he had been taking money since June 2002. Kerr, of East Cliff Road, Dawlish, admitted obtaining money by ...

A Bideford man with Hollywood-sized ambition is hoping his first foray into films will make movie moguls sit up and take notice. Ray Smith has spent the past year writing the script for a short film and arranging the myriad details which even a modest production requires - in between odd jobs to pay the bills. Now all is ready, and shooting for Blunt - a black comedy in the British gangster genre ...

A leading Tory has defected to the UK Independence Party, and will become the first councillor in Teignbridge to sit as an official member. A former mayor of Dawlish, Cllr Bill Forrow, 43, shocked fellow Conservatives by switching to UKIP because the Tories are not robust over Europe. Cllr Forrow, who was mayor last year, said: "It was a huge wrench and something I had to wrestle with for some ...

As defending East Devon Mini-League champions, Dawlish Swimming Club opened this season's account with a resounding victory on Saturday evening in Paignton. This season's newcomers, Paignton (replacing Totnes), finished the evening in second place, with Newton Abbot, Torquay and Exeter behind them. The evening opened with three first places for Dawlish, setting the scene for the evening, which saw ...

A SOUTH Devon soccer club for youngster was almost brought to the knees by a fiddling treasure who milked thousands of pounds from the club. Read the rest in the Herald Express ! Dawlish United Football club needs sponsors for all ages , this could be a small amount to buy a football, to a large ammout for a team kit.Its a shame the young generation after suffer over someones greed!you can all ...

Firefighters had to force their way into a South Devon nightclub after smoke and flames were seen coming from the second floor of the premises. The alarm at Cools in Teignmouth was raised by a shopper passing the scene in Northumberland Place. Firefighters from the town were joined by crews from Dawlish and Torquay to deal with the incident just after 9am. It is believed the fire in an office had ...

A Convalescent home fined £5,000 two weeks ago after a food-poisoning incident is to close. During a hearing Llandudno Magistrates were told if losses at the Railway Convalescent Home, near Llandudno's West Shore, continued the home could close within seven or eight years. Yesterday however, the home's trustees announced that the home will close early next year. "It has been brought about by a ...

A Lincolnshire railway enthusiast is set to give a new lease of life to a dilapidated trackside signal box at a Devon seaside resort. Justin Rushworth is in talks with Network Rail over a 99-year lease of the 86-year-old box at Dawlish. He hopes that the signal box, which is a listed building, can be opened up to the public to enjoy sweeping views across the Exe estuary.

£16K for a sarnie? Not even the swankiest deep-filled mother from Pret or M&S would set you back that much. But then again, your average BLT doesn't have the Virgin Mary's beatific face in it. So there. And when the free market talks and all that... For some reason alien to all right-thinking people, the Times reports that an online casino company has bought a 10-year-old cheese sandwich, for said ...

"Shop front" police stations could be provided in two Devon seaside towns to give the public easy access to the police. Dawlish and Teignmouth are being discussed as possible locations for the new look stations, which would house local officers and an inquiry officer. The police are considering long terms plans to introduce the shop front stations across the region.

Gale-force winds and heavy showers will continue to lash parts of Britain today with rail, air and ferry services all set to be disrupted. The worst of the weather is again set to hit the South West of England which has already suffered widespread flooding. About 200 rail passengers were stranded for three hours aboard two Virgin trains when they failed after being swamped by sea water at Dawlish, ...

Problems at a Devon NHS trust which treats patients with mental health problems will be debated in the Commons on Monday night. Angela Browning, the MP for Tiverton and Honiton, says the way the trust is being run is affecting patients. It follows claims by Exeter GP Adrian Midgely that patients are not being seen quickly enough and treated. But Devon Partnership NHS Trust insists it is providing ...

A south Devon resort’s tourist information centre has had to close after being hit by vandals. Damage to the facility at Dawlish is estimated to be around £5,000 and it will remain closed until repairs are carried out. Police are appealing for any information about Monday’s incident, in which windows and glass doors were smashed, apparently by rocks taken from a nearby flower bed.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, A Russian rocket carrying a new Russian-U.S. crew to the international space station has lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome. For Russians Salizhan Sharipov and Yuri Shargin and American Leroy Chiao, it was the first mission in a Soyuz spacecraft -- breaking the nearly 30-year tradition of having at least one crewman with previous experience in piloting the capsule. Chiao ...

Council Tax campaigners in Devon are claiming victory after three pensioners appeared in court for non-payment. Newton Abbot magistrates ordered the pensioners to pay Teignbridge District Council what they owe, but did not order them to pay court costs. Campaigners say the ruling, given on Monday, shows that people in authority were listening to their protests. Peter and Margaret Fountain, from ...

Player-manager Chris Myers admits he's got some trough decisions to make ahead of tonight's game away to Elmore in Division One of the Screwfix Direct Western League. With midfielders Chris Slough and Gary Head available after missing the last two games, the temptation is to include both in the starting line-up as the Sandy Lane side seek to stretch their unbeaten league record to six games. Myers ...

People visiting a south Devon beach have been allowed back into the water after a pollution incident. Teignbridge District Council is liaising with the Environment Agency to find out what caused the pollution at Coryton Cove, Dawlish. A bathing ban was put in place on Wednesday after some tests discovered unacceptable levels of some pollutants. Swimmers were allowed back into the water on Friday ...

South Devon's firefighters have returned home safe and well after lending a hand in Boscastle. The squad, including one Dawlish and four Torquay firefighters travelled to Cornwall to help with the search and rescue operation after the devastating flash floods on Monday. John Miller, assistant leader of the rescue team said: "Everyone is back home now. "Basically the crew were involved with ...

Dawlish junior Anna Kingman and 13-year-old Jake Grinsill from Torquay beat seeded rivals at the South Hams Junior Novices at Totnes to go on and book their place in today's final line-up at Borough Park. Twelve months after suffering a first round defeat in the girls' singles following a two-hour marathon with Charlotte Jago (Dawlish), Anna Kingman has made a spectacular return. In the ...

Dawlish Town manager Chris Myers has vowed to continue to run the Western League side despite Nigel Gooding standing down as chairman after a fire destroyed the club's stand. Gooding claimed he had received threats since taking control of the club in October last year and decided to put an end to the situation. He said the 'suspicious' fire which burnt down the club's main stand was "the final ...

Fears for the future of the centuries-old Topsham ferry in Devon have been allayed. The future of the service, which carries hundreds of birdwatchers and visitors each year across the tidal river Exe at Topsham, was in the balance when the ferryman recently left his post for personal reasons.

US space agency Nasa is to get a massive supercomputing boost to help get its shuttle missions back in action after the 2003 shuttle disaster. Project Columbia, a collaboration with two technology giants, will mean Nasa's computing power will be ramped up by 10 times to do complex simulations. It will be one of the world's biggest Linux-based supercomputers. The new supercomputer will help the ...

Police are hunting arsonists who burned down a South Devon football club's grandstand causing tens of thousands of pounds damage. The structure at the Dawlish Town AFC in Sandy Lane was deliberately set alight in the early hours of yesterday. Dozens of firemen with four appliances fought the flames, but were unable to save the wooden grandstand from being totally destroyed. A refreshment kiosk ...

The heatwave that was predicted to hit the Westcountry this weekend saw temperatures reach 27C, and as visitors headed to the South West, the region's roads were described as "busy and congested". As holidaymakers headed to the coast to soak up some much needed sunshine, they were caught in massive traffic jams on the M5, which on Saturday were reported have tailbacks of up to 19 miles. A ...

There are serious concerns about the reliability of this year's English tests taken by 14 year olds in England. This year, reading and writing parts of the national curriculum tests were sent to different examiners, as part of an electronic marking trial. There was a delay in sending out the results to thousands of students, with some arriving after term ended. The National Assessment Agency has ...

The first virus to attack handheld computers running Microsoft's Windows Pocket PC software has been found. It is called "Duts", and its existence has been revealed by the Russian security firm BitDefender. The company said the virus posed no threat and was produced only as a "proof of concept" by its creators. The program comes from the same virus writing group that put together similar code that ...

Ipplepen made a piece of unwanted history against Dawlish when they were bowled out for 19 and lost by a whopping 177 runs. It was the third lowest score ever recorded in the division. Only the now defunct Teignbridge (18 in 1983) and Victioria Park (15 in 1994 at Chelston) have been bowled out for lower scores. Andy Lockyer (42), Jon May (31) and Bill Alcock (30) were Dawlish's men in the runs as ...

One of the last remaining mature Exeter Elm trees is facing the chop after flourishing for more than 200 glorious years in the city. The rare species of elm is native to the city and was once plentiful across the region. But one of the last few to survive is now facing the axe after growing in a garden in Topsham's Grove Hill since the beginning of the 19th century. The rare tree is believed to be ...

A struggling non-league football club in Devon has made an audacious request for a world famous Italian referee to preside over one of their matches. Dawlish Town FC have asked Pierluigi Collina to referee one of their games, and are offering to pay his expenses and put him up in a five star hotel. The struggling south Devon club were relegated last season. Club chairman Nigel Gooding said: "It's ...

A man was attacked by a dog and stabbed by its owner as he walked along Teignmouth sea front. The 37-year-old from Dawlish was on the sea wall between Teignmouth and Smugglers Cove when the incident happened at around 8.30pm on Tuesday. An argument broke out when he met a man walking an Alsatian along the sea wall in the opposite direction. He was then assaulted by the man and bitten by the dog ...

Warren are the new leaders after some high quality golf and no shortage of surprises in last weekend's South Devon League programme. The Dawlish club triumphed at home to Dainton Park by four and a half points to two and a half, while defending champions Torquay were being put to the sword at Teignmouth. Stover consolidated in third place when they overcame visiting Churston 4?/2? after a ...

Life is going swimmingly for a Dawlish man whose longstanding career with South West Water is being recognised with the MBE. Brian Hooper from Fay Road is to receive the honour for his services to the water industry, which span more than 30 years. The 59-year-old lives and breathes water, not only during the working week but also at weekends and in the evenings when he often goes out and about in ...

Controversial plans for university top-up fees have run into trouble on the first day of detailed Lords scrutiny. The House of Lords inflicted three defeats during the report stage debate of the Higher Education Bill. Ministers want English universities to be able to charge students up to £3,000 a year for courses from 2006. Peers voted to defer the fees for those on gap years in 2005, to limit ...

Plymouth Civil Service romped back to the top of the C Division with a crushing seven-wicket win at Stoke Gabriel. Heathcoat were top on Saturday morning, but their defeat by Dawlish & Teignmouth opened the door for Civil to take pole position. And Dawlish are up to second now with Exeter St James newly installed in third - they easily accounted for lowly Mount Wise by six wickets - with Heathcoat ...

Venus made a rare transit across the face of the Sun on Tuesday, giving stargazers from Australia to the Middle East and Africa a celestial view that no living person had seen before. To the delight of hundreds of people around the globe armed for the occasion with telescopes, pinhole cameras and special glasses, Venus appeared at 0520 GMT as a small black dot on the lower edge of the Sun at the ...

SpaceShipOne and the White Knight, are the unconventional designs of the California-based aerospace visionary Burt Rutan, who in partnership with the billionaire founder of Microsoft and space travel enthusiast Paul Allen, has invested between USD $20 million and $30 million USD in the project. A small rocket plane will power into a steep climb over California's Mojave desert later this month and, ...

Controversial plans to split Exeter's Parliamentary seat along the River Exe have been scrapped, the Echo can reveal today. The Boundary Commission for England has abandoned proposals to cut a chunk off the city's seat west of the river. In a dramatic U-turn, the commission has ditched plans to hive off Alphington, Cowick, Exwick and St Thomas into a massive 'Mid Devon' seat stretching to ...

Exactly seventy years to the day that the county association (DCLBA) was formed and affiliated to the English Women's Bowling Association (EWBA) at an hotel in the town, a Devon President's team took on the England President's team at Courtenay Park. Seven past presidents of the DCLBA and section secretaries were among a bevy of officials in Margaret Shillabeer's side, while Devon's Sue Harriott ...

Ian Langler of Dawlish Coasters holds a narrow lead in the Fox River/Ironbridge Runner Devon Race Series going into the fourth round at Plymouth on May 30. The Plymouth Half-Marathon, for which entries have now closed, includes the next round of the popular series which has already seen fierce competition during the early races of the season. Langler was eighth Devon runner in the opening race, ...