“It’s hard to believe that Autumn is almost upon us, and although the Big Butterfly Count has ended, it doesn’t mean you have to stop… Read More »Butterflies in autumn

5 September – 18 October: Surfers Against Sewage: “The Generation Sea: Plastic Protest” Coronavirus hits, and the take-up of single-use plastic around the world increases… Read More »Coronavirus and plastic pollution: ‘the fight goes on’

“They want us to go back to normal life without acknowledging that six months of distance from normal life has made us realise that normal… Read More »WFH vs the fizz of the office and the daily commute

“The Government’s proposed changes to planning rules mean that over two thirds of rural communities in England are unlikely to benefit in future from new… Read More »Highlighting the rural housing crisis

“We have arrived at a new juncture of disease and architecture, where fear of contamination controls what kinds of spaces we want to be in.”… Read More »How the Coronavirus is reshaping how we design our spaces

“Solving our housing problem … requires confrontation with vested interests.” . Locally, the politicking over house-building is becoming increasingly fraught: The Greater Exeter Strategic Plan… Read More »“Revolutionising the fraught local politics of planning”

“Now we move on to develop our new Local Plan as urgently as possible – and you can be sure that this time we will… Read More »The Greater Exeter Strategic Plan “is dead”: long live the East Devon Local Plan!

These are important indicators of the state of the environment . The Sid Valley Biodiversity Group now has its own website: sidvalleybiodiversity.org.uk It includes the… Read More »Grasshoppers in the Sid Valley

Advice to East Devon: “Just produce a sloppy, stupid, back of the envelope plan showing housing in the worst possible places. You will get masses of… Read More »Planning and local democracy: of zoning laws and revolt: part 2

It doesn’t matter where staff are working, “as long as they are effective”. But the CBI warns commercial hubs risk being permanent “ghost towns”. .… Read More »Working from home: pros and cons

Offering a mixture of virtual and face to face work support to young people from the end of September 2020 . It’s been very difficult… Read More »Mental health support for young people in Sidmouth

“The failure of this council to go ahead with the Task and Finish Forum commissioned to look into the Brown issue and into the role… Read More »District Council determined to improve probity in planning

“Not only will it enable home owners to have high quality solar panels installed at a more affordable price but it will also help our… Read More »Register for a council-led group-buying scheme for solar panels

Bringing together the skills and knowledge from all the groups whilst not forgetting the residents . A new project is underway to give a little… Read More »Creating a Coral Reef Community Garden at the Ham

“It really does seem good in intention ….. I am not sure that they can implement it though.” . The latest bulletin from the heritage… Read More »The ‘planning revolution’ in house building – comment