Bringing you the news, sport, travel and weather for Devon and Cornwall

It took eight weeks to remove 36 tanker loads of congealed fat, wet wipes and grease from the sewer.

Is the way in which the small fishing vessel industry regulated letting down our fishermen?

A man who bought a child sex doll from China is jailed as a judge blasts his excuse as "ridiculous".

Richard Whitehouse
Local Democracy Reporting Service

Cornwall Council's cabinet has supported spending an extra £26.4m on capital projects, including a new specialist school and two bridges, as part of the 2019/20 budget plans.

Among the projects brought forward for funding is a new social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) school which is planned to be built on a site at Bodmin.

The council will provide £2m in match funding towards the cost of building the school, which will serve the whole of the county.

The council is also set to provide £3m for a maintenance backlog in schools which will be used on a "programme of priority improvement/modernisation targeted at the most urgent issues in schools to meet health and safety requirements and ensure a safe environment for pupils and staff".

Other projects earmarked for capital funding include two pedestrian bridges in Launceston which will provide better walkways and address poor air quality in the town. Cornwall Council will provide £2.25m to the scheme.

Funding will also be given to the West Carlclaze Garden Village with £3.4m which will be used for sewerage and drainage works as well as road improvement works.

Cabinet member Bob Egerton said this money was not coming from the council itself but had been awarded to the council from the government.

Cornwall Airport Newquay is also set to get £4.45m which will be used for a new radar facility.

The administrator of a £236m collapsed investment finds money in "personal possession or control" of four people.

BBC Radio Devon

A delay to the re-opening of Oldway Mansion in Paignton to the public is "very sad", a new managing trust for the building says.

The historic building was due to open its doors to visitors for the first time in six years on 6 and 7 April, but Torbay Council has said that would not happen as it was unsafe.

Paul Hawthorn, chairman of the Friends of Oldway, which campaigned to see the house saved for the public, said "thousands" of people had been expected during the open weekend.

But he added: "It's just a question that they have to solve the teething problems that they've come across."

Andrew Segal
BBC South West

Police investigating so-called county lines drug operations have charged eight people from London and Cornwall in connection with alleged drug-related and modern slavery offences.

Officers said properties in Haringey, Lewisham and Hackney in London, as well as in Bodmin, St Austell and Newquay in Cornwall, were raided at the end of February as part of ongoing work to disrupt drug-dealing operations.

County lines, external is the name used to describe urban gangs supplying drugs to other parts of the UK using dedicated mobile phone lines. The gangs are also likely to exploit children and vulnerable adults to move and store drugs and money.

Devon and Cornwall Police said a 56-year-old man from Bodmin, a 32-year-old man from Newquay and a 65-year-old woman from St Dennis had been charged with offences including conspiracy to supply class A drugs, and to "arrange/facilitate the travel of another with a view to exploitation, under the Modern Slavery Act".

They are due to appear before Bodmin Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

Five males from London, aged between 17 and 49, have already appeared before magistrates in London, charged with the same offences, and were due to appear at Truro Crown Court on 2 April, police said.

BBC Radio Devon

Image source, Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust

Care homes across north Devon have taken on a new scheme designed to help their residents when they are admitted into hospital.

The red bag scheme requires care home staff to prepare a red bag with things such as people's medication, clothing and toiletries, so they have everything they need with them.

It also makes the transition back to the care home easier for the residents, as NHS staff are able to handover the bag when they're discharged, those behind the scheme said.

Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust staff have helped seven care homes to start using the red bags, and said, external the scheme would be rolled out further.

Ed Oldfield
Local Democracy Reporting Service

Image source, Google

A memorial to hundreds of US soldiers who died in a wartime exercise off the Devon coast is to be improved after being awarded a government grant.

A Sherman tank was placed at the roadside at Torcross, near Slapton Sands in south Devon, to mark the site of the attack, which was kept secret for 30 years after the end of World War Two.

The memorial marks the death of 639 soldiers and sailors during a rehearsal for the D-Day landings in 1944: Exercise Tiger. That is the official death toll, but some believe the true number of fatalities was almost 1,000.

Eight landing craft loaded with US troops and vehicles came under attack at sea from German submarines.

The American tank was recovered from the water just off the beach in 1984.

It will be renovated and a granite obelisk and plinth relocated as part of the work at the memorial after the Slapton Line Partnership received £44,300 from the Coastal Revival Fund to carry out the work.

The memorial is one of several coastal projects to have been awarded a share of government cash.

Other coastal grants include £1.5m towards a new pool at Barnstaple and £1.2m for a nature tourism centre at Northam Burrows, both in North Devon.

John Danks
BBC Spotlight

The last surviving part of what was Plymouth's emigration centre in the 19th Century is being restored.

The Baltic Wharf depot was where hundreds of thousands of people left on ships bound for new lives in America and Australia.

The Phoenix Wharf Pier and Piermaster's House, which is just off Madeira Road, will have public access restored ahead of the Mayflower 400, external commemorations next year.

Both have been left uncared for in recent years.

Truro City appoint ex-Grimsby and Northampton Town coach Paul Wilkinson as caretaker manager until the end of the season.

BBC Sport

Image source, Rex Features

Paul Wilkinson is to be the new caretaker manager of Truro City.

He is being appointed after the sacking of Leigh Robinson on Tuesday night.

Robinson and assistant manager Michael Meaker were relieved of their duties with the club just a point above the National League South relegation places.

Fifty-four-year-old Wilkinson's last job was caretaker of Grimsby Town until he left in May last year.

The former Everton, Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest player has also managed Northampton Town.

Truro have gone six matches without a win and have lost six of their last nine.

Despite being close to relegation places, club chairman Peter Masters has given an assurance that the Cornish Pirates will still take over the club if they are relegated to the Southern Premier.

"The contract is binding," he told the BBC.

BBC Radio Devon

The infamous Sidmouth fatberg is expected to be completely removed by the end of the week, staff from South West Water say.

The discovery of the 64m-long mass of hardened, fat, oil, wet wipes and other waste under the Esplanade in the town was revealed in January.

Andrew Rowntree is from South West Water, who is part of the team getting rid of the fatberg, said he hoped the work would be completed by Friday.

Image source, South West Water

BBC One's Blue Planet UK has joined scientists who have been breaking the fatberg down to reveal the culprits behind the blockage it caused.

BBC Radio Cornwall

The future of Bodmin's branch of the Kernow Credit Union seems to have been secured after fears it would close down because of rent about to imposed on it, managers say.

The credit union lends money to people who save with it, offering an alternative to the big banks.

The union said it did not make enough profit to be able to pay a proposed £120 a month for the use of St Petroc's Parish Centre.

Jon Hayworth, a director of the union, said a lot of hard work had been put in to save it and it "looks like it's resolved".

Staff at St Petrocs said negotiations were ongoing, but added that there was a good relationship with the union and that their Saturday arrangement was ongoing.

Image source, Kernow Credit Union

Twitter

Exeter is one of 15 National Police Air Service bases providing air support to England and Wales' 43 police forces.

Abigail Leatherland still faces charges of manslaughter and causing or allowing a child's death.

BBC Radio Cornwall

The chairman of the Isles of Scilly Steamship Group is stepping down from the post after 16 years.

In a statement, the group said it "extended its thanks" to Andrew May for his "contribution to the business and dedication over the years".

The group operates ferry services to the islands from Penzance, and Skybus plane flights from Newquay, Land's End and Exeter.

During his tenure, Mr May presided over the start and closure of the company's helicopter service to Scilly, external shortly after a rival firm was given permission to set up a new helicopter passenger service from Penzance which is due to start next year.

The new chairman - company shareholder and former Siemens AG executive Ian Howard - is to take up the role on 1 April.

The solicitor and president of the British Triathlon Federation, who has family connections to Tresco, said he was "enormously privileged to be offered this opportunity".

Image source, Isles of Scilly Steamship Group

For many prisoners the worst part of the experience is the separation from their families. Recording stories for children can help to bridge the gap.