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Village Lives is a marvellous book, containing a host of interesting articles which were published in the Parish News between 1975 and 2009. It gives a vivid picture of life in Broadhempston, Landscove, Littlehempston, Staverton and Woodland, their inhabitants, the society and the social changes that have occurred in relatively few years. The Parish News editors were keen to preserve and present the social history just sitting there modestly within all these magazines. Suitable local photos have been included in the presentation. The Village Lives page explains how you can read the book here online, download your own copy from this website, or buy a hard copy.

GOOD NEWS FROM THE SEA TROUT INN

Matt, Clair and our three children are looking forward to welcoming you back to The Sea Trout Inn when we re-open on the 31st July.

We are currently adding our finishing touches and safety measures to the pub and creating our menus along with our head chef Rob and general manager James.

We have been running pubs for the last 14 years for various pub companies and finally took on our first pub ourselves at The Treby Arms in Sparkwell just over a year ago.

The Sea Trout Inn will be open for breakfast, lunch and evening meals 7 days a week offering various styles of food alongside 11 en-suite B&B rooms.

In the meantime, we hope everyone is keeping well and we are looking forward to meeting everyone and bringing the pub back to life

Matt Littlechild

The new Hole Farm Food Hub is now up and running. They are home delivering food from local suppliers Ben’s Farmshop, Riverford Organic Dairy, Barnaby’s Brewhouse ,Crock & Cole’s ferments, The Almond Thief’s bread, Sharpham’s cheeses, New Lion Brewery’s beers – and more. Full information and their online shop is at holefarmfoodhub.co.uk.

Our local foodbank in Buckfastleigh has seen demand up 700% in recent weeks according to Rev Tom Benson who heads up the operation. The foodbank is park of a nationwide network supported by The Trussell Trust and by local donations.

Read more about it here with details on how to donate money by bank transfer here.

The government has extended the RHI grant deadline by 1 year for ground or air source heat pumps for domestic applications.  This means projects must be completed by March 2022.  The RHI can pay up to around £34,000 over 7 years depending on the size of your house, and how efficient the heat pump is.  Detail here.

The government’s “Committee on Climate Change” wants a huge step up in the pace of replacing oil and gas boilers in order to achieve UK’s climate targets. They are telling the government that 15 million homes must converted to heat pumps or other green options by 2035.  So far, 95,000 homes have been converted under the RHI scheme since 2011.  This acceleration in pace is set to become a very big issue.  More here.

It’s expected that the RHI will be replaced with another scheme after March 2022, but there is also talk of using ‘stick’ as well as ‘carrot’.  New regulations could kick in when you sell your house.  And with government borrowing soaring as we fight Covid, it is very unlikely that we’ll see grants as generous as the RHI, which can pay a total of up to around £34,000 over 7 years depending on house size.    And whatever form regulation takes, it won’t be long before home buyers are expecting price reductions for the burden of dealing with a polluting oil or gas boiler.

If you can afford the up-front cost, my advice would be to contact your heating engineer to explore the options of converting to air source or ground source heating, and benefit from RHI before it’s too late.

I’m currently in the planning phase of a project to install ground source heating.  I’ve obtained a number of quotes and have learned a lot.  I’m very happy to share what I know if you contact me on simon.oldridge@gmail.com or 01803 762 740.

More on heat pumps here.

I’m reliably informed by Barb Hinley (newly moved to Staverton) that Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellites will be visible this evening from 9:33. Best to look from 9:25 until 9:40. They will take 6 mins to
pass, travelling west to east, starting at 10 degree elevation
from the west horizon rising to 60 degrees elevation and dropping to
10 degrees at the east horizon.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52355706

I have issued the attached statement to local media and social media in the hope of enabling residents across the South Hams (and indeed some fellow District Councillors who may not yet have read their electronic papers) to wake up with regard to this week’s Full Council, as I’m concerned about an important agenda item.

On Thursday, District Councils will be asked to vote on a proposal on the table to stop all questions and motions to Council meetings and stop all regular meetings until May 2021. I.e. shut down scrutiny, accountability and democracy for over a year. The attached statement explains.

This is an urgent matter.

Best regards

Jacqi
Cllr Jacqi Hodgson
Devon County Councillor for Totnes & Dartington
South Hams District Councillor for Dartington & Staverton
Totnes Town Councillor for Bridgetown – Town Mayor

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