BBC News England

The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has helped a small Cornish village buy its Methodist chapel.

Residents of Godolphin Cross near Helston emailed him in a desperate attempt to raise funds.

The village shares a name with the world famous Godolphin stables, founded by the sheikh, Cornwall Live reports, external.

Richard Mckie from the Godolphin Cross Community Association said: "We are extremely appreciative." The group needed £90,000 to buy the chapel that they intend to convert into a community centre, and had raised £25,000 towards it.

One villager, Valerie Wallace, had the idea as a last ditch attempt, with the group having failed to raise sufficient funds elsewhere.

"We thought nothing of it and then we began to get phone calls from Dubai," Mr Mckie said. "We thought we were being hoaxed but it was no hoax."

Sophie Malcolm
BBC News Online

How's this for a proposal?

Earlier this week Owen Chamberlain popped the question to his girlfriend, Sarah, on the Appledore to Instow ferry.

It was the first proposal on the ferry, which the couple had to themselves.

The skipper and crew helped them celebrate with roses and wine after Owen played a song he wrote for Sarah on his ukulele.

In case you were wondering, she said yes.

Image source, Owen Chamberlain

Plymouth Herald

A man was shot in the face , externalafter a dispute in Torpoint last night.

BBC Radio Devon

South West MP Gary Streeter has defended his tweet saying some people don't deserve a voice on social media.

Thousands of people have joined in the conversation ignited by Mr Streeter in response to a tweet by political commentator Paul Mason, external which criticised one of Mr Streeter's fellow Conservative MPs Johnny Mercer.

Mr Streeter said social media was often an "unpleasant part of modern life".

"Of course we want to hear from everyone, but let it be done in a measured and reasonable manner," he said.

"People who are rude and abusive have a voice that we don't really want to hear."

BBC Radio Devon

The mayor of Totnes says beggars are coming to the town to make money.

It comes as police say they will clamp down on begging, with reports of aggressive behaviour including beggars harassing shoppers for money and threatening violence.

Mayor Rosie Adams says Totnes is an "ideal place" for beggars, because it is an affluent area.

"They are coming in from other places and actually spoiling it for our local people who we were taking care of," she says.

Image source, Google

Jonathan Morris
BBC News Online

Football legend Gary Lineker has responded to South West MP Gary Streeter's tweet saying some people don't deserve a voice on social media.

Image source, Twitter

Lineker retorted on Twitter, external: "This is why I love social media. It gives a voice to people who deserve one."

He joins about 3,000 others who have joined in the conversation ignited by Mr Streeter in response to a tweet by political commentator Paul Mason, external which criticised one of Mr Streeter's fellow Conservative MPs Johnny Mercer.

Jonathan Morris
BBC News Online

Gary Streeter, the Conservative MP for South West Devon has got himself into hot water over a tweet in which he suggested that some people don't deserve a voice on social media.

Image source, Twitter

Mr Streeter's tweet which has had about 3,000 responses and 600 retweets so far, was in reply to a post by political commentator Paul Mason relating to the public sector pay cap.

BBC Spotlight

The number of people waiting for an NHS dentist in Devon and Cornwall has gone up by more than a third since January 2016.

At the beginning of 2016, 18,500 people were on the list. But last month that had risen to more than 29,000.

NHS England says it's trying to help in areas under most pressure.

Fisherman Andy Smith hasn't had a check up for seven years. He's been waiting several years for an NHS dentist, and is being treated by volunteers from the the social enterprise group Smile Together.

The project is about bringing the dentists to the people who most need it, in this case the harbour at Newlyn where they're targeting fishermen.

Fishermen are just one of many hard to reach groups.

The most deprived in society are least likely to see a dentist and most likely to have severe tooth decay. Students from the Peninsula dental school also run outreach projects to help refugees.

Plymouth Herald

Plymouth's Conservative MPs are engaged in a fierce online feud, external with a left-wing journalist.

BBC Radio Cornwall

A huge net trapping dozens of creatures on the sea bed in Falmouth Bay has brought the issue of "ghost fishing gear" back into the news.

The plastic mono-filament net, thought to be over a 100 metres long, was dragged up by volunteer scuba divers and fishermen.

Mark Milburn discovered the lost gear just off Rosemullion Head, and says it's the biggest one he's seen.

According to the charity, Olive Ridley Project, ghost nets are commercial fishing nets that have been lost, abandoned, or discarded at sea, which are responsible for trapping and killing marine animals.

BBC Spotlight

The 200th public defibrillator in the South West is being presented to a school in Penzance today.

The parents of Esmee Polmear are expected to be amongst the guests at Humphry Davy School.

Esmee tragically died at Perranporth school two years ago due to heart problems.

Defibrillators are available to the public across the region in various towns, schools, sports venues and beaches.

BBC Radio Devon

Totnes shoppers are being aggressively harassed and threatened with violence by beggars who are making up to a £100 a day - that's according to police in the town who say they are now changing their stance and won't tolerate the behaviour.

Officers have taken to Facebook to say they have received reports of shoppers being harassed for money, followed up the road, abused, threatened with violence and intimidated at cash points.

Police say they are now clamping down on this behaviour and have met with the council to try and come up with a plan of action.

Plymouth Herald

Three arson investigations have been launched in St Austell and Truro, external in as many days following a series of suspicious fires.

Neil Gallacher, Business & Industry Correspondent
BBC Spotlight

The company that runs a tungsten mine near Plymouth says it's still having problems with reliability and performance at its processing plant, which is visible from miles around.

Wolf Minerals says progress towards what it calls "steady state production" has been further delayed, and tungsten prices remain challenging.

One of its corporate backers has agreed to provide Wolf Minerals with an additional £10m of bridging finance to tide it over.

In 2015, it was the first metal mine to open in Britain for more than 40 years at a cost of £130m.

Amy Gladwell, BBC News Online

An investigation into the grounding of a sightseeing boat off the Isles of Scilly last year has recommended the council reviews the way it issues licences.

The 'Surprise' had 48 passengers on-board when it struck a submerged rock at Western Rocks during a trip to watch wildlife in May 2016, according to the The Marine Accident Investigation Branch report, external.

The passengers were all safely evacuated to nearby boats and the skipper was found to have carried out all the correct procedures to get help, the report states.

However, it also says the skipper was relying on local knowledge of the sea bed rather than an echo sounder and had not adequately assessed where safe and unsafe areas existed before the trip.

The report recommends the St Mary's Boatmen's Association improves its guidance to members on passage planning and conduct of navigation.

BBC Radio Devon

Advocates say police are still not taking stalking victims seriously when they make complaints.

It comes as Helen Pearson, who was stabbed by her stalker, dismissed a police apology as "meaningless".

She suffered neck and face wounds when her neighbour Joseph Willis attacked her with scissors in an Exeter graveyard.

Alexis Bowater, former chief executive of Network for Surviving Stalking, said she was "still, sadly, getting calls from victims saying that police are not taking their complaints seriously".

"They call it murder in slow motion," she said.

"Taking stalking seriously is murder prevention."

Deputy Chief Constable Paul Netherton said "numerous changes" in the force's stalking investigations had been made since the attack.

Andrew Segal
Local Live

A third Devon council has announced that its parking machines will not accept old £1 coins from July - despite the coins remaining legal tender until 15 October.

Exeter City Council said, external it needed to bring the switch in "earlier than planned to avoid making expensive changes to cash handling processes".

It added that people could also make card or phone payments.

South Hams District Council and West Devon Borough Council also said this week they were not accepting the old coins because of costs for additional staff and counting machinery.

BBC Spotlight

A sheikh who's the head of the Godolphin horse racing empire has stepped in to help a Cornish village buy its Methodist chapel.

Villagers in Godolphin Cross, near Helston, said they were delighted when the The Emir of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum agreed to cover their shortfall.

They seized upon a link from the 18th Century when the second Earl of Godolphin bred the legendary Godolphin Arab which founded the most famous breeding lines in racing.

Image source, Google

Devon Live

People are dying in prison each day, external because of "devastating failures" to keep inmates safe, it is being claimed.

BBC Radio Devon

A woman who was stabbed by her stalker has dismissed a police apology as "meaningless".

Helen Pearson, 34, suffered neck and face wounds when her neighbour Joseph Willis attacked her with scissors in an Exeter graveyard.

She had made 125 reports to Devon and Cornwall Police about Willis' stalking before the attack in 2013.

The force said its "investigation and victim care did not meet the high standards we expect".