Plymouth City Council's electoral system 'lacked integrity and robustness' in 2017 poll
--- About 2,000 postal ballots not sent, and up to 200 people unable to vote
--- Council says it is to 'act to restore voter confidence' after voting problems
--- City MP says 'catalogue of errors' is 'totally unacceptable and incompetent'
Cornwall day care centre for elderly running for 30 years may have to close
Badger culling begins in Devon to try and curb bovine TB
Digital criminals to be collared by new police dog unit
Updates on Friday 15 September 2017
Johnny O'Shea
BBC News Online
Live updates for Devon and Cornwall have finished for the day, and the week, but we'll be back at 08:00 on Monday with the latest news, sport, travel and weather.
Don't forget Spotlight on BBC One later. There will also be news through the night and over the weekend on your BBC Local Radio station.
Scott Bingham
BBC Spotlight
A woman from Sidmouth has donned mortar board and gown to get her degree - at the age of 103 and more than 80 years after she studied to become a teacher in London.
Marjorie Hodnett went to Southlands Methodist College - now part of the University of Roehampton - completing her studies in 1934.
It has been decided that work done by students before 1980 was degree-level, and the achievement should be recognised.
Image source, Marjorie HodnettMargerie wasn't able to attend a ceremony in London, so the head of the college awarded her the honorary degree in her home town.
She said: "I'm very honoured and rather amused at the whole business, but that's how it is."
Showers likely to ease for a time in the evening, but we are likely to see more arriving later in the night.
Minimum temperature: 7 Deg C (45F).
Saturday will stay unsettled with a mixture of bright spells and some showers. These are likely to turn heavy into the afternoon with a risk of hail and thunder.
Maximum temperature: 15C (59F).
Plymouth City Council's leader says it is "important for all councillors that both they and our voters have complete confidence in the council's electoral service".
About 2,000 postal ballots were not sent out for 2017 general election.
Plymouth City Council has received a report into electoral issues, external which said staffing shortages and mistakes led to the problems.
The unitary authority said it was acting "to restore voter confidence".
Conservative Ian Bowyer said: "I am totally committed to ensuring that this happens."
BBC Sport
Image source, Rex FeaturesTorquay United have signed defender Callum Evans from League Two side Forest Green on a three-month loan.
The 21-year-old has not played since being substituted in Forest Green's first game of the season versus Barnet.
Evans joined Rovers from Barnsley on a one-year deal in the summer and has non-league experience from a loan spell with Macclesfield last season.
The defender is available for selection to face Barrow in the National League on Saturday.
Two police dogs being used by Devon and Cornwall Police can help detect paedophiles by sniffing out data storage devices, officers say.
The animals are the first of their type outside of the USA, and can also be used in the fight against terrorism and fraud.
Labrador Rob and springer spaniel Tweed received training in Devon from a recently retired Connecticut State police dog instructor, along with the only digital detection dog handler in the FBI.
Image source, Devon and Cornwall PoliceThey can detect mobile devices, USB sticks, SD cards, hard drives and computers.
Although based with Devon & Cornwall and Dorset Police, they have already seen active duty in Hampshire, Essex, South Wales, and North Yorkshire.
Andrew Segal
Local Live
A member of staff who sexually abused children while working at a school in Devon has had his sentence doubled, the Attorney General's Office says, external.
Sixty-six-year-old Steven Joyce, from Ivybridge, sexually assaulted students aged between 12 and 14 for nine years from 1980.
After pleading guilty to 13 offences, he was jailed for seven years and two months at Exeter Crown Court in May.
The Court of Appeal has increased his sentence to 14 years and four months after Solicitor General Robert Buckland argued it was unduly lenient.
Mr Buckland said the original sentence "did not reflect the seriousness of the offending" because "these young victims have been robbed of their childhood, and the abuse will have left lasting emotional damage".
Postal vote problems in Plymouth during the 2017 general election cost the Conservative-controlled city council nearly £70,000 to rectify.
About 2,000 postal ballots were not sent out for the national poll.
Extra work costing about £68,000 to attempt to rectify the situation included additional staffing and courier costs to get replacement ballot packs out.
Plymouth City Council has received a report into electoral issues, external that led to problems.
The unitary authority said it was acting "to restore voter confidence".
There are reports hundreds more Portugese man-of-war have come ashore on Porthmeor Beach in St Ives (pictured), RNLI lifeguards say.
Image source, RNLIThe Cornwall Wildlife Trust said earlier it had had 630 reports of the creatures this week, but added that hundreds more were likely to have gone unnoticed.
In Portheras Cove in west Cornwall, more than 100 were reported to have been found this morning.
BBC News England
Badger culling has begun in 21 areas across England as part of efforts to tackle tuberculosis in cattle.
The scheme was expanded this year to 11 new areas in Devon, Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset and Cheshire, and could see up to 33,000 badgers killed.
The government claims culling badgers will curb TB in cattle and said it was committed to the culling trials.
Opponents say culling is inhumane and vaccinating badgers would be more effective in preventing TB's spread.
Image source, PAThe Royal Navy can only send a quarter of its warships to sea due to spending cuts which have left the armed forces "struggling to protect Britain's citizens", the Telegraph has learned, external.
Currently 13 of the Navy's 19-strong fleet of Type 23 frigates [many based in Plymouth] and Type 45 destroyers are unable to go to sea due to a lack of manpower, fuel and supplies, senior military sources have revealed.
Police are investigating how a 53-year-old man in Exmouth sustained serious injuries to his ear that required 25 stitches.
Peter Wilkinson woke after a night out drinking with no recollection of how he sustained his injuries to his ear, as well as cuts and bruises, officers said.
Devon and Cornwall Police are investigating if he was a victim of an assault in the early hours of Saturday 12 August.
Det Insp Grant Leitch, from Exmouth CID, said: "He last remembers leaving Wings Bar at around 00:20 after having a couple of drinks, then moving to the Strand PH before walking along Exeter Road in Exmouth.
"The next thing he remembers is being woken up at home by his partner having sustained a serious ear injury and covered in cuts and bruises."
More sunny spells and occasionally heavy showers with the chance of the odd shower turning thundery with hail.
Maximum temperature: 16C (61F).
Heavy showers will continue into the night although some drier spells are likely. It will also become chilly under clear sky.
A motorcyclist involved in a crash in North Devon two weeks ago has died in hospital.
Police say the 55-year-old man from Newton Abbot died at Derriford Hospital on Tuesday.
He had been airlifted there after his bike collided with a car on the B3227 between Atherington and Torrington on 28 August.
No one else was injured in the incident.
A poor weather forecast has put paid to the men's county gig championships in Newquay this weekend.
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Council staffing shortages and mistakes have been blamed on people being unable to vote in Plymouth during the last general election.
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About 2,000 postal ballots were not sent and between 150 and 200 people were unable to vote.
Thousands of votes were missed out of the result of Mr Pollard's constituency, says a report by an independent investigator.
The council says it is to "act to restore voter confidence".
A twisted pensioner who serially abused boys at a north Devon boarding school, external in the 1980s had his too soft sentence doubled by senior judges today.
Police in Devon & Cornwall and Dorset have created the first police dog unit that specialises in detecting digital storage devices, officers say.
Labrador Rob and springer spaniel Tweed are the only dogs of this type outside of the USA, according to the Devon and Cornwall force.
They would be used to fight terrorism, paedophiles and fraudsters, officers said, external.
Image source, Devon and Cornwall PoliceCh Supt Jim Nye, commander of the forces' Alliance Operations Department, said: "Tweed and Rob have been used by police at crime scenes and executions of warrants, not just within Devon, Cornwall and Dorset, but across the whole UK.
"The dogs have been used to sniff out data devices such as mobile devices, USB sticks, SD cards, hard drives and computers."
In Newquay, Treloggan Road is partially blocked by a jack-knifed lorry near the petrol station
