Friday 21 February 2025
 Above inflation budget increases for vulnerable people and cash boost for highways
There will be a 4.99 percent increase in council tax in Devon for the coming financial year.
Devon county councillors have agreed an increase of 2.99 percent for general services with an extra two percent for adult social care.
The annual council tax for an average Band D home will rise by £85.59 – or £1.64 a week – to £1,801.26.
There will be increases in spending of 8.2 percent on adult services and 5.5 percent for children’s services.
Reductions in other departmental spending and increased income will mean an overall rise of 5.9 percent in the budget with a total spend of over £784.1 million.
Councillors also agreed an extra £4 million to boost highways and repair potholes since the target budget was set last month.
There will be an additional £5 million for children’s social care to provide a range of services to allow vulnerable children to be cared for closer to their families and communities.
And there’ll be an extra £500,000 to support the work of district councils and homeless organisations which brings Devon County Council’s homelessness budget up to £1 million.
You can read more in the full story on our news page.
 Volunteers help investigate Devon’s ancient past
Local volunteers have been learning new skills to enable them to help document the condition of a number of 4,000 year-old burial mounds in Torridge.
And next week (Wednesday 26 February) there will be a Community Education Day at Burton Arts Gallery, Bideford, where residents can learn more about the work that has been carried out.
Several new projects are now underway as part of a scheme to protect and celebrate Torridge’s remarkable archaeology.
Last month, investigations into the Bronze Age round barrow cemetery at Wrangworthy Cross began. The work focused on a group of burial mounds dating to between 2,000 and 1,500 BCE.
Volunteers cleared scrub from one barrow mound, allowing it to be investigated for the first time in decades.
The work paves the way for more projects with ten planned for this year.
To find out more about the work and projects planned for this year, please read the full story on our news page.
 Illegal tobacco and vapes seized in shops across the region
More than £37,000 of illegal tobacco, vapes and cash has been seized by our Trading Standards officers during a recent operation.
The five-week operation during January and February saw our officers from the Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service, supported by Devon and Cornwall Police and Avon and Somerset Police, look for illegal tobacco.
We visited 14 shops across the region including in Brixham, Crediton, Kingsbridge, Newton Abbot, Paignton, Plymouth, Taunton, Teignmouth and Wellington.
They used detection dogs to look for hidden stashes. All but one of the 14 shops were found to be selling illegal products.
Find out more about the operation in the full story on our news page.
Improvement work at Bishops Tawton Roundabout in Barnstaple is due to begin on Monday 3 March.
The scheme will develop additional lanes at the roundabout to increase capacity. Pedestrian and cycle links between Bishops Tawton and Barnstaple will also be improved and a signal-controlled pedestrian crossing will be installed.
To minimise traffic disruption, a single lane approach to each arm of the roundabout will be maintained from 7am to 7pm. Any work outside these hours may occasionally need manually operated traffic lights.
This project is the latest junction upgrade of the overall £67 million North Devon Link Road improvement project which was backed with £60 million of Department for Transport (DfT) funding.
It follows our improvements of the A39 Westleigh Junction in July 2021 and A39 Buckleigh Road Junction in July 2022. The “main scheme” on the A361 between South Molton and Portmore roundabout was completed by contractor Griffiths at the end of last year.
Read the full story on our news page.
Local people in Devon have one week left to share their experiences, views and ideas that will contribute to the development of the national 10-Year Health Plan whilst informing local priorities in Devon. There is a dedicated webpage, which includes a link to the Devon 10-Year Plan survey.
The NHS in Devon launched local engagement around the 10-Year Health Plan in November 2024, which has run in parallel with the national Change NHS campaign. People are being encouraged to fill in the local survey even if they have already completed the national one. This is to ensure that insights from local people can be used to improve local services.
Steve Moore, Chief Executive at NHS Devon, said:
“The response from local people to the NHS Devon engagement around the 10-Year Health Plan has been incredible.
“We have received over 2,500 pieces of feedback so far via the survey, postcards, drop-in events and workshops.
“Everybody’s experience of using the NHS in Devon, positive or challenging, can help us shape services in the future.
“We want to hear from as many people as possible, so if you haven’t shared your views, there is still time to complete the survey online.”
You can read more in the story on the One Devon website.
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