If you run a small business and are looking for ways to save energy or reduce your carbon impact, join our free workshop on Wednesday 24 April. Taking place at Newton Abbot Library in partnership with Libraries Unlimited, the event is for small businesses as an introduction to decarbonisation, and will help you learn more about what steps your business can take to reduce its carbon footprint. We also have a limited number of fully funded decarbonisation plans available for small businesses in Teignbridge through Libraries Unlimited South West which include one to one support, training, and guidance. 

The workshop is being timed ahead of our next round of Green Business Grants, which opens in June. It's recommended that decarbonisation plan is obtained before applying for a green business grant and applicants submitting a decarbonisation plan or energy assessment of their business will score higher in the grant assessment process. 

Find out more about our Green Business Grants.

Last week we brought a successful prosecution on a large amount of fly tipped rubbish on the pavement of West Cliff Road, Dawlish in June 2022. The Defendant Nolan Foley had attended Newton Abbot Magistrates previously and entered a “ Not Guilty Plea”. He elected to have the matter heard in the Crown Court, at which he pleaded guilty to depositing controlled waste or knowingly causing or knowingly permitted controlled waste to be deposited without an environmental permit.

This household waste which the landlord had dumped after he evicted a tenant included a sofa, cushions, a table, drawers’ white goods and other items, and the offence was witnessed by a number of local residents who came forward and reported it, and agreed to testify in court.

Mr Foley was fined £500 for the offence and ordered to pay the council’s costs for removal of the waste these being £458.53.

Teignbridge has also increased the fines for fly tipping, which can now be up to £1,000, depending on the size of the tip.

More information and reporting

Devon County Council has confirmed that it's been allocated a little over £5 millionfrom the government to help households struggling to pay higher bills for energy, food, water, and other essential items.

The funding is to support households in most need, but specifically those that may not be eligible for other support that is already available from the government.

The council must submit plans mid-May to the Department of Work and Pensions, setting out how it, with Devon's District, City and Borough councils and other voluntary and community partners, will make the latest funding available.

This latest round is welcome news, and we will await the specific detail of our allocation and will open our next round once we know this.

The household support fund has already helped 1503 Teignbridge households in the previous round of HSF, with over £650,000 distributed to residents across Teignbridge. This has helped with things like rent, paying bills, buying vital goods and services and helping people experiencing fuel poverty.

We know that these payments have made a difference to the lives of people who are experiencing financial hardship through this cost of living crisis; and this next round of funding will help us extend the support to more people across the district.

We’ll be opening the next round of applications next month and will publicise this on our social media channels and through our newsletters. We're asking residents to wait until then before contacting us

Earlier in the year, our Meta Teignbridge Leisure Advertising account was hacked. This did not affect the Facebook page, which remains secure. However, to ensure our financial details are kept safe in the future, we have been advised by Meta to close our current Facebook Leisure page and open a new one.

The Leisure Marketing Team have been working very hard to set up the new Facebook Leisure page, which is now live, and will be officially deactivating our old Facebook accounts on Monday 22 April.

To stay updated with all things Leisure please like/follow/share the new Teignbridge Leisure page

An exhibition space to showcase the transformative plans for Newton Abbot Market will be open to the public for the final day tomorrow (Saturday 13 April) from 11am – 2pm. Council officers and members will be on hand to show visitors the plans and answer any questions or concerns. 

The work to transform the market area of Newton Abbot is being funded from the Future High Streets Fund and is part of the overarching Garden Communities plan to revitalise, enhance and protect the areas of Newton Abbot and Kingsteignton. 

If you are a postal voter, your postal vote pack for the 2 May elections will be posted out to you on Friday 19 April. The best way to return a completed postal vote is to post it yourself in a Royal Mail post box. Find the location of your nearest Royal Mail post box.

You can still hand-deliver a postal vote if you wish to, but there are now restrictions on how many you can hand-deliver and you will need to complete a form at the place of delivery. You can hand-deliver your postal vote to the person authorised to receive it on the reception desk of our main council offices at Forde House, Newton Abbot.  You can only do this when our offices are open, otherwise there will be no one available to receive your postal vote. You can no longer simply place it in the council’s external mail box. Alternatively, you can hand-deliver your postal vote to your nearest polling station on polling day. 

By law, you can now only hand in your own postal vote, and those of up to five other electors per poll. If there are multiple polls taking place and postal votes for these polls have been issued separately, the postal votes handed in must still only belong to a total of five other electors, although there may be multiple postal votes per elector. If you hand in, or are suspected of handing in, postal votes on behalf of more electors than permitted, all other postal votes will be rejected except your own. 

You will need to complete a short form when handing in postal votes, even at a polling station., and you will be required to sign a declaration. We must reject any postal votes which are simply left without the form being completed, or if it is completed incorrectly.

Stricter restrictions apply to political campaigners who may now only hand-deliver a postal vote on behalf of a close relative, or on behalf of someone for whom they provide regular care.

Dartmoor National Park and many of its partners have welcomed the government's response to the Independent Review of Protected Site Management on Dartmoor.  The government's response was published this week.

DNP says it is delighted that the government has responded quickly to the independent review, known as the Fursdon Review, commissioned in 2023. 

A key part of the government’s response is the creation of new Land Use Management Group for Dartmoor (LUMG) with an independent chair who will report to the Secretary of State. The government response indicates the National Park Authority will provide the secretariat for the Land Use Management Group and additional funding will be made available for this purpose. For the last 12 months a group of local stakeholders that spans the interests of commoners, farmers, landowners, environmental groups and statutory bodies has been working to find a way forward that works for all interests on Dartmoor and the hope is that the new Land Use Management Group will build on the work of this group.