News in Seaton

Lockdown restrictions are slowly easing in England and some things will be changing from Monday, March 8.

The biggest change is that schools will be reopening and all children can return to the classroom. Wraparound childcare, such as breakfast and after-school clubs can also reopen.

Council taxpayers in East Devon will be paying an extra £5 – less that 10p per week - for a Band D property to secure crucial front line services for residents and businesses.

The increase means the authority's portion of the annual Council Tax bill for a Band D property will be £151.78 a year or £2.92 a week for all the services it provides. The increase, which was approved by the council on 24 February 2021 is less than 10p extra per week.

Beer's annual parish meeting is scheduled for April 6, starting at 7pm via Zoom and will be live-streamed to the parish council Facebook page.

This is a meeting for the electorate and includes an open forum for public participation.

Traffic problems in Axmouth were discussed by members of the parish council at their February meeting in the hope of slowing down traffic through the village.

County councillor Ian Hall advised that he was hoping to include Axmouth as part of a 20 mph trial scheme. He advised that there were funds ring-fenced for Vehicle Activated Signs (VAS) schemes and councillors would have to agree with the placement of the sign.

The latest crime figures released by police show there were 33 crimes in the wider Seaton area during January 2021.

These figures compare to 47 crimes the previous month and 29 in the same month the previous year.

The new political leadership is "seriously mistreating" officers at East Devon District Council.

This is one of the negative comments contained in a survey of staff employed by the council, which also revealed that six per cent of respondents were "bullied at work".

Nearly half of Devon and Cornwall's adult population have now had their first COVID-19 vaccine.

The statistics, which provide the position as of February 21, show that there have been 404,574 vaccines delivered in Devon, with  391,325 of them being the first dose.

Controversial plans to hike car parking charges by 20 per cent in some of East Devon's most popular car parks have been agreed – but the rise won't kick in until April 2022.

East Devon District Council last week voted in favour of rising car parking charges for the first time in a decade, with the hourly tariff to go from £1 an hour to £1.20 per hour.

Beer Coastguards played a role in responding to a major incident in Exeter yesterday (Saturday) in which a World War Two bomb was detonated.

The voluntary coastguards were first called to the incident along with teams from Exmouth, Teignmouth, Torbay, Prawl, Yealm and Tamar at 8pm on Friday evening to assist police after the unexplored bomb was discovered near Exeter University.

Users of Devon's recycling centres are being reminded to treat staff with "courtesy and respect" following reports that key workers at more than one site were verbally abused and threatened over the weekend.

Over the weekend and continuing into this week Devon County Council's Household Waste Recycling Centres are experiencing unprecedented demand, in part due to the good weather.