BBC Radio Devon

Rubbish and recycling collections across Devon have been disrupted by Covid 19.

Plymouth City Council has warned of delays to bin collections due to some staff self-isolating.

Torbay Council said it had been dealing with reported problems but services should be back to normal on Monday.

Collections of waste in North Devon were recovering after being disrupted a few weeks ago, officials said.

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Ch Supt Drummond-Smith is the force's Head of Contact and Resolution.

Andrew Segal
BBC South West

Councils in Devon are to lobby the government for extra funding because of concerns the South West will be badly affected by the latest England Covid lockdown.

Plymouth City Council leader Tudor Evans said government "failure" to enforce a circuit-breaker lockdown over the half-term holiday meant some businesses were facing being "devastated" by a lockdown now.

He said he was supportive of measures aimed at controlling the virus, and there was "relief" at the extension of the government's furlough scheme until December, but that he was not confident the lockdown would work due to a lack of funding for local authorities, and because the track and trace system was "completely broken".

Mr Evans added that the city authority had only been given enough money for 157 payments of the one-off £500 handouts for people on low incomes who would be asked to isolate and would lose work as a result, and that, for a city of more than 200,000 people, this support will "disappear in a matter of days".

Meanwhile, Torbay Council's leader, Liberal Democrat Steve Darling, said under-funding of the area had contributed to problems it was experiencing in the pandemic, leaving it "between a rock and a hard place at the moment".

Andrew Segal
BBC South West

The new four-week Covid lockdown expected to be imposed on Thursday is being described as "terrible news for Cornwall".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to make his case for the move in the House of Commons on Monday after being advised by scientists that, if no action was taken in England, the death rate could be double that of the first wave of the pandemic.

Tim Dwelly, Independent Cornwall Councillor with responsibility for the economy, said that, with pubs and restaurants set to close again, it was the worst possible news for the county.

Council cabinet member Mr Dwelly also said the government should have enforced a shorter circuit-breaker lockdown earlier to limit damage to local economies, but that the county was now facing a "combination of shockingly low pay and a massive rise in unemployment".

Some are better prepared, others will diversify businesses and several want more financial support.

The plastic pollution has been spread "as far as the eye can see" by the weather, a volunteer says.

Daniel Clark
Local Democracy Reporting Service

Devon County Council will be asked to ensure all eligible children receive free school meal vouchers for the Christmas and New Year holiday period.

The council this week said it will continue to work with district councils to ensure hardship support is available to vulnerable children and families across the county this winter and pledged extra funding to ensure no child goes hungry.

But Liberal Democrats group leader Councillor Alan Connett had said the announcement was "smoke and mirrors" and the Conservatives running the council were playing politics with hungry children this half-term and for the holidays to come.

Now Labour group leader Councillor Rob Hannaford has put forward a motion to December’s full council meeting that would see the council resolve to use some of the allocated hardship funding to ensure that all eligible children receive free school meal vouchers for the Christmas and New Year holiday period.

Mr Hannaford said: "I hope that this motion will clarify that we need leadership on this key issue from the county council directly.

"We will obviously work closely with our district colleagues and others, but at the end of day we are the education authority.

"The government has totally misread the mood of the country on this problem, and it has now become a symbolic issue that has starkly highlighted again the widespread poverty and hardship that continues to blight our nation through the plight of hungry children."

The motion will be debated at a full council meeting on 3 December, as will a petition started by East Devon councillor Joe Whibley, if 6,000 signatures are reached by 24 November .

Richard Whitehouse
Local Democracy Reporting Service

More than 13,000 children in Cornwall currently get free school meals to ensure that they don’t go hungry.

That is 16% of all schoolchildren in the Duchy having parents who qualify – although it is widely believed that many more are also eligible but choose not to apply.

And that number is already rising with more and more families finding themselves struggling to make ends meet as the impact of coronavirus leads to more redundancies across Cornwall.

Free school meals is a hot topic across the UK – helped by a high profile campaign by Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford.

The striker, who himself was a beneficiary of free school meals when growing up, has been campaigning tirelessly to get the government to provide food for children in school holidays as well as term time.

And, after MPs voted against a motion to extend free school meals, he has championed the legion of businesses all over the country that have stepped in to provide food for children.

This includes many across Cornwall who have offered their help, despite the hospitality industry being one of the hardest hit by the economic downturn caused by Covid-19.

Sally Hawken, Cornwall Council Cabinet member for children and families, is pleased that the issue of free school meals has become a national debate but also hopes that the conversation will continue on a long-term basis.

As of last Friday there were 13,362 children in Cornwall getting free school meals.

Councillor Hawken said: "Cornwall is not just cream teas and surfing, there is extreme poverty here.

"People shouldn’t be surprised by that number, but maybe for some the penny hasn’t dropped."

A council has blamed delays to cleaning up incontinence pads polluting the coast in North Devon on surfers.

Torridge District Council said the efforts at Bucks Mills could be suspended due to a "small number of surfers ignoring the warning signs" and "refusing to make alternative arrangements".

The pads have been spreading along the coast after a container washed up near Hartland Point on Wednesday.

A number of cruise ships are anchored off the coast of Devon, waiting out the Covid-19 pandemic.

Daniel Clark
Local Democracy Reporting Service

East Devon District Council is preparing to deal with the “inevitable second wave of homelessness” over the winter now that the ban on landlords evicting tenants has ceased.

Wednesday’s cabinet meeting heard that during the coronavirus pandemic, the council has seen a huge increase in demand for people requiring temporary accommodation, with high numbers of approaches being received from people fleeing domestic violence, those needing accommodation for health reasons, hospital discharges and those with a need to shield.

There had also been a large increase from people who had previously freely moved between properties, known as ‘sofa-surfers’, no longer being free to do so.

Image source, Gillian Adamson

Andrew Mitchell, housing solutions manager, said that while actions have been taken to address the homelessness situation throughout the pandemic, the economic situations created - including people losing jobs and income being reduced - have created barriers to the affordability of rent and mortgage payments, and need to be factored in.

The cabinet agreed to the request for funding to increase staffing levels within the housing team, as well as agreeing to write to MPs and the government to lobby them to reinstate the ban on evictions.

Mr Mitchell said that for the first six months of 2020-21, between April and September, there have been 432 homeless approaches recorded, which actually was a lower figure than for the same period last year of 555.

But he said: "This figure has been reached without the usual high number of homeless approaches from people losing accommodation in the private sector."

The actor who played Poldark in the original series has backed a campaign to save the "iconic" house which featured in the programme as it’s now fallen into disrepair.

Charley Adams
BBC News Online

Image source, Chaos

Volunteers have provided free lunches for 500 families over half-term in Cornwall.

Babs Rounsevell from the Chaos group said she was "fuming" when MPs voted against providing funding for free school meals during half-term and wanted to do something.

"I was determined that children in Cornwall would not go hungry,” she added.

Chaos has provided a range of community services to vulnerable people since lockdown started.

The managing director posted on the group's Facebook page on Friday and said "there was an incredible response" with lots of people volunteering to help.

With Russell Keeble from the Threemilestone Methodist Church, they hope to have delivered 500 meals to children and families in Cornwall before the end of half-term.

Mr Keeble and Ms Rounsevell said: "We ended last week feeling angry at the thought of children going hungry.

"Thanks to the community joining together we will end this week having been able to help hundreds of local families."

Image source, Chaos

A specialist team of firefighters in Cornwall are working on their equipment and fine motor skills with an oversized Jenga game.

Campaigners are fighting for Botallack Manor in Cornwall to be restored to its original state.

Prosecutors accepted Luigi Palmas was affected by his schizophrenia when he killed Katherine Bevan.

Sections of the Mount’s Bay Coast Path will be closed from next week when work starts on improving resilience and accessibility for walkers and cyclists, Cornwall Council revealed.

The upgrade will see a resurfaced path, a new path to take the route away from Longrock car park, more benches and improved access to the beach for people with mobility issues.

The popular path is vulnerable to weather and storm damage, which creates uneven surfaces and forces sections to be closed, the council said.

Construction will begin on 2 November and the project is due to run in sections until June next year.

Image source, Simon Rickwood, Bang Bang Creative

The project is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, which committed about £1.7m (1.9m Euros) to Cornwall Council as part of a wider development project of areas in France and England.

The council invested about £800,000 (900,000 Euros) to the project themselves.

Councillor Tim Dwelly said: "Mount’s Bay is one of the jewels in our crown, but the sea has not been kind to the coast path over the years.

"This investment will not only protect the path for many years to come, but also contribute to the regeneration of the Marazion and Penzance area by encouraging people to visit all year round."

Police seized 2kg worth of the drug in woods near the village of Ide, near Exeter, Devon.

Many of the plastic incontinence pads have been "torn to shreds" by storms say campaigners.

Richard Whitehouse
Local Democracy Reporting Service

Remembrance events and services in Truro city centre are set to be invitation only this year due to Covid-19, with the main service to be streamed online so people can watch at home.

Details of the arrangements for Remembrance Day and Remembrance Sunday were provided by Truro Mayor Bert Biscoe at a meeting of the city council this week.

He explained that new arrangements had been made for all the traditional events in the city so they could follow coronavirus guidelines.

Image source, Phil Dolby

Normally the city hosts one of the biggest Remembrance events in Cornwall with a full parade, wreaths being laid at the war memorial in Boscawen Street and a service at Truro Cathedral.

Crowds of people gather in the city to watch the procession and to attend the service but the Mayor explained that it would all be very different this year.

He explained that the Royal British Legion would be holding a private ceremony to lay its wreaths at the memorial which would not be able to be attended by the public.

There will also be a small service held in the Garden of Remembrance at the back of the Cathedral which will again be invitation only.

The main service held in the Cathedral will take place but only 100 invited guests will be allowed in.