Twitter

BBC Spotlight

One of the leading lights in British contemporary jazz is due to premier his latest album at the Dartmoor Resonance Music Festival on Thursday.

Mike Westbrook has been a composer, pianist and band leader for more than 60 years, but it's his love of his native Devon, and in particular Dartmoor, that continues to influence his work.

He has been talking about his latest piece - Granite - created with his wife, Kate, which tells the story of the quarrymen that worked the stone at Haytor Quarry...

Alex Osborne
BBC Weather

If you're planning a trip to the coast or seaside, here are the next high water times around Devon and Cornwall.

We'll have the latest forecast on BBC Spotlight at 13:30.

Falmouth Packet

A university's career advice service accidentally sent students an email which contained a motivational quote from Nazi general Erwin Rommel, external.

Exeter University, which has campuses in Devon and Cornwall, apologised and said it was a "genuine error and in no way intentional".

Andrew Segal
BBC Local Live

Police have charged a man after two armed robberies in Plymouth.

Officers said they were called to reports of an armed man threatening staff at the Co-Op store in the Mutley area at about 22:00 on Monday. A second robbery took place at the Spar store on North Hill at about 03:35 on Tuesday.

Two men were arrested.

A 29-year-old from the North Road West area has been charged with two counts of robbery and is due before Plymouth Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

A 43-year-old man also arrested has been released with no further action to be taken.

Brent Pilnick
BBC Sport

Barnstaple's Craig Overton has been added to the England one-day squad for the final two one-day international with Australia.

Image source, Getty Images

The 24-year-old Somerset all-rounder has been called up alongside Surrey's Sam Curran from the England Lions squad.

Overton made his test debut during England's unsuccessful Ashes series in Australia in the winter and was part of the squad for the one-day series in New Zealand earlier this year.

Twitter

John Ayres
BBC Spotlight

A businessman who photographed so-called beggars in Torbay has said "there should be nobody homeless in Torbay anymore" after he opened a bed and breakfast to help combat the problem.

Ashley Sims says he has 27 bedrooms and he plans to provide temporary accommodation to those living on the streets.

Earlier this year, he outraged some, including Torbay Council, by photographing - and making public - images of people he thought were professional beggars, rather than genuinely homeless.

Torbay Council plans to spend a £279,785 grant from the government to tackle rough sleeping in the Bay.

BBC Radio Cornwall

The British Horse Society (BHS), external is urging riders in the South West to sign up for road safety training to help reduce accidents and fatalities.

The society said that, while it supported a "pass wide and slow campaign" targeting motorists, people on horseback also needed to ensure their behaviour also met expected standards.

Tamsin Banks, from the BHS in Cornwall, said the new scheme was about "helping riders to be safe, to be respectful of other road users, and to make it easy for other road users to be respectful as well".

Luke Bodset, from the motoring organisation the AA, said riders also should take simple steps to be more visible to drivers.

BBC Radio Devon

• In Hemyock, there are reports of a collision on Lower Millhayes, at Station Road
• In Plympton, Ridge Road is partially blocked by an overturned van around Drunken Bridge Hill
• In Winkleigh, there are reports of an accident on the A3124 at Butcher's Moor Lane and Torrington Road

BBC Radio Cornwall

In St Austell, there are reports of an accident on Trinity Street, around South Street. There's slow traffic.

BBC Spotlight

An ambitious project to create a geothermal-heated spa at Jubilee Pool in Penzance has been given planning approval.

Cornwall Council has granted listed building consent to allow a spa to be created within the existing pool complex.

Drilling has already started to reach hot rocks which will heat the sea water that fills the art deco lido.

Andrew Segal
BBC Local Live

Image source, Delabole CFRS/Twitter

A "much loved" wartime building on a Cornish moor has been damaged in a "shocking act of vandalism", moor supporters say.

Fire crews were called to a tyre fire inside a former World War Two building at the former Davidstow Airfield, on Davidstow Moor, near Bodmin Moor, on Tuesday morning.

The site was in operational use from late 1942 until 1954.

The Bodmin Moor Commons group tweeted their praise, external to firefighters from Delabole and Launceston for a quick response.

It added that anyone who caused the blaze showed a "total lack of respect for our history".

Sophie Pierce
BBC Radio Devon

Waste collection problems in Torbay have been condemned as "unacceptable' by the local MP.

Conservative MP Kevin Foster said he had been inundated with complaints from people who had not had bins collected for up to three weeks.

Amy, who works in a cafe in Union Street in Torquay, said the collection service had been poor recently.

She said: "The collections seem to be getting later and later ... which isn't nice for the street, the local businesses and people who live here."

Torbay Council and the Kier Group, which run the service, admitted they had had problems with the bin lorries and a shortage of drivers.

Kevin Thomas
BBC Weather Forecaster

We've been talking Russia this morning, what with the World Cup and all.

I took this picture at Kiel in the 80s during a visit of some unlikely bedfellows. Can you guess what nationalities' armed forces these piece of head gear belong to?

If you recognse them, you can email us your answers.

And we need some specifics - we've had one person message us, saying "foreign". That's just not good enough!

Cornwall Live

The controversy over our relationship with seagulls has been thrust into the spotlight this week with two incidents in which birds have been killed, external.

There was a violent attack on one gull in St Ives and a disturbing incident of children luring others into a road in Penzance to get run over.

BBC Radio Devon

Trains between Barnstaple and Exeter St Davids are subject to delays due to a speed restriction in place for a track fault.

BBC Spotlight

A man behind a controversial campaign in Torquay to photograph and expose people he claims are "street beggars pretending to be homeless" has opened his own bed and breakfast to provide temporary accommodation to help "real" homeless people.

Ashley Sims's fake homeless campaign received national coverage when it started. It outraged some, but was supported by others.

He claims he has "decimated" street begging in the town and now wants to provide help for those who really need it.

The campaign was condemned by police, Torbay Council and homeless charities.

Torbay Council says it plans to spend a £279,785 grant from the government to tackle rough sleeping on supported lodgings for young people, outreach services, a resettlement service, temporary accommodation for women, and a six month "rough sleeping coordinator post".

BBC Weather

A good deal of cloud in general this morning, thick enough in places to give patches of drizzle.

This afternoon, staying mostly cloudy with a few patches of drizzle still possible. Feeling muggy.

Maximum temperature: 15 to 21C (59 to 70F).

Daniel Clark
Local Democracy Reporting Service

A "crucial" new hospital in Exeter specialising in treating patients with mental health issues will help the battle against the lack in provision in the county, planners have been told.

Cygnet Healthcare want to build a hospital at Ribston Avenue, Exeter, after the Devon Partnership NHS Trust identified an unmet need for adult men and women requiring specialist rehabilitation in a safe and structured environment.

Image source, Cygnet Healthcare

The 54-bed independent hospital would have 17 beds for men with acute mental health needs, 21 beds for men who require a period of longer term mental health rehabilitation and 16 beds for women who require a low secure environment for treatment of an emotionally unstable personality disorder.

Documents submitted to Exeter City Council said that the proposed hospital would provide care to those people who lived locally who needed support during vulnerable periods of their life, as this level of care is currently not available within the Exeter area.

Council planners will decide on the fare of the scheme at a later date.