Western Morning News, The Plymouth (UK) back issues from July 2007:
Centre for donkey-ride therapy is up and running
Jul 02, 2007 ... A new indoor donkey-riding centre for children with special needshas opened in Ivybridge, South Devon. It is the fifth of its kind to be built in the UK by the ElisabethSvendsen Trust (EST) charity. The charity's founder, Dr Elizabeth Svendsen, will be among thoseattending ...
Place of safety for beautiful and mysterious birds
Jul 02, 2007 ... Birds of prey at a Cornish sanctuary are getting first-class care -from a trained NHS nurse. Carolyn Screech, a community psychiatric nurse, discovered a loveof owls as a eight-year-old. Now, with husband Tom, she helps to carefor dozens of the creatures on a daily basis at the ...
Funeral date for drowning victim
Jul 02, 2007 ... The funeral of popular Cullompton man Alan Manning - who died onJune 22, days before he was due to celebrate his 60th birthday whenhe fell overboard from his boat, Hookie II, after a day's fishing -will be held on Thursday at St Andrew's Church at 2.30pm, with aprivate committal ...
Slade confident of retaining guyett but Morris may leave
Jul 02, 2007; ... Yeovil Town manager Russell Slade is confident that centraldefender Scott Guyett will agree a new deal and stay at Huish Park,but striker Lee Morris is looking increasingly likely to leave theSomerset club. Both players are out of contract after their deals expired onSaturday ...
Flight crews in fight for clean cabin air
Jul 02, 2007 ... He issue of pollution is a daily topic in the modern world, be itfrom traffic, industry or other sources, but how many of us haveworried about the air we are breathing in aircraft? You may think about the person next to you with a cold butprobably not much more than that. People ...
No place for terror threats
Jul 02, 2007 ... Angry Cornish teenager Jack Bolitho echoes the frustrations ofhundreds of thousands of young people all across the countrydesperate to buy their first home and make a life for themselveswhere they were born and grew up. His complaint that Cornwall has become a giant holiday resort ...
Disgruntled childs knocks the knockers
Jul 02, 2007; ... Lee Childs has launched a furious attack on British tennis criticsfor knocking domestic players such as himself who are "doing theirlevel best" to succeed. The 25-year old from Somerset was one of six UK players to exitthe men's singles in the first round at Wimbledon without ...
Brilliant bomber
Jul 02, 2007; ... Cornishman Chris Harris has well and truly made his mark in worldspeedway after a stupendous victory in Saturday's FIM British GrandPrix at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Any thoughts by some pundits and fans that Harris might not havebeen fully deserving of his place on the ...
Holloway expects all his troops to be trim
Jul 02, 2007; ... Plymouth Argyle's first-team squad will be back at work today toprepare for the start of pre-season training - and manager IanHolloway already knows that his men are in fine shape. The Pilgrims' playing staff face a long and hard programme ofphysical activity before Coca-Cola ...
Mayweather fight could be on the cards for hatton
Jul 02, 2007 ... Promoter Dennis Hobson has offered Floyd Mayweather pounds5million to fight Ricky Hatton in Britain later this year. Mayweather says he is willing to come out of retirement to fightManchester's light welterweight champion. "I've spoken to some of his people and they've been ...
Grecians are poised to complete Basham signing
Jul 02, 2007; ... Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale is on the verge of his fourthsummer signing, with former Oxford United striker Steve Basham poisedto sign a two-year deal with the club today. The 29-year-old front man is without a club, having being releasedby Oxford at the end of last season ...
Devon are keen on replay instead of bowl-out lottery
Jul 02, 2007; ... Devon are hoping to avoid cricket's equivalent of the dreadedpenalty shoot-out, after seeing the first attempt at playing theirMinor Counties Cup semi-final against Cheshire at Boughton Hallrained off. Match officials Cliff Pocock and David Burden did not have tospend long ...
Exeter beat the weather to make up ground at the top
Jul 02, 2007; ... Only one game started - and that one did not finish - as the DevonLeague Premier Division programme took another pasting from theweather. At least Exeter made it worthwhile getting wet, though, as theypicked up four batting bonus points from their abortive game withdefending ...
Fine view from the top of the hill
Jul 02, 2007 ... Blowy and rainy, two steps forward and one step back up the muddy,steep hill. Still, us gets there in the end, m'dears. Must keepfit, and it's good to test body and soul up a few hills from time totime. Below us swallows and martins flew low after insects affectedby low pressure ...
Sheep South West 2007 event prizewinners
Jul 02, 2007 ... There was a record attendance of 2,500 at the National SheepAssociation's Sheep South West 2007 event at Hornacott Barton, nearLaunceston, where there were 40 breed societies and 100 tradeexhibitors. Prizewinners Carcass competition, sponsored by Jaspers with Dalehead ...
Late thistles bring crop problems
Jul 02, 2007 ... The resurgence in oilseed rape growth following the May and Junerains, combined with noticeably earlier overall maturity this season,means growers in the Westcountry will have to look to their laurelsin the coming few weeks if they are to minimise harvesting problems.That is the warning ...
Technical topics at dairy seminar
Jul 02, 2007 ... The Dairy Group and the Kingfisher Veterinary Practice areinviting milk producers to a dairy farm walk and seminar on July 11at Smokey Farm, Staplegrove, Taunton. The meeting will focus on a range of highly relevant technicalissues, including the impact of heat stress on milk ...
Competition win for team of young investors
Jul 02, 2007 ... Pupils from Queen Elizabeth's Community College in Crediton haveshown their business prowess. The school has just scooped top place in the Shares4Schoolsnational investment competition run by retail stockbroker, The ShareCentre. A group of Year 12 pupils made a 26.8 per cent ...
Private firm may manage cemeteries
Jul 02, 2007; ... The management of crematoriums and cemeteries in a South Devonresort could be handed to a private company. Some members and officers at Torbay Council believe an outsidefirm may be better placed to care for the Torquay Crematorium andeight burial sites. But others fear ...
Partnership success for rural schools
Jul 02, 2007; ... The future for scores of tiny rural schools could soon be brighterthanks to a pioneering partnership in the South West. This time last year things were looking bleak for ChudleighKnighton Church of England Primary School in Devon. It was suffering with falling numbers and hit ...
Don't get stuck with an old banger of a pension plan
Jul 02, 2007 ... Last week I spent a couple of days signing up a number of newemployees to Group Personal Pension Plan. One of the many questions Ialways ask is for details of their existing pensions. Many of theyounger ones do not have any pension, which is understandable.However there are many in their ...
Charity cash to help children
Jul 02, 2007 ... Families in South Devon could benefit from new funding set asideto help vulnerable and disadvantaged children. The money is being made available to groups in the Kingsbridge andDartmouth areas. Children's charity Barnardo's South West said the cash would helpfamilies in the ...
Ceremony celebrates teaching's finest
Jul 02, 2007 ... The stars of education in the South West have been revealed in anail-biting ceremony celebrating the best in the classroom. The 2007 Teaching Awards lists headteachers, teachers, teachingassistants, governors and sustainable schools who all go that bitfurther to ensure a top ...
Birds of prey are to blame
Jul 02, 2007 ... I have supported the RSPB over the years but strongly disagreewith its attitude on the decline of songbirds in the countryside. Its accusations are always against the farming community's use ofpesticides and increased agricultural intensification. Anthony Gibson in his article of ...
Violence is not the answer, Cornwall
Jul 02, 2007 ... For many years I have maintained that Britain is overpopulated andthat unhindered immigration holds back the country's technical andbusiness development; eventually the indigenous population willbecome second class citizens. That is my opinion, or prejudice, depending upon one's ...
Summer spent battling nature
Jul 02, 2007 ... Hatever happened to our long, hot summer - the drought and thefatally high temperatures? I had been rather looking forward to them.Instead, I haven't been able to hang out the washing for days, thekitchen floor is now completely covered in mud rather than dottedwith paw prints, and there ...
Concession goes too far
Jul 02, 2007 ... Ose socrates' new motto is: "Don't let the ink get dry." On behalfof his country, the Portuguese Prime Minister took over the helm ofthe European Union yesterday - and in so doing picked up the baton inthe race to rush Son-of-Constitution into law. "Our intention is to start ...
Bradshaw a hard act to follow, says industry
Jul 02, 2007; ... Westcountry fishermen's leaders have wished previous Fisheriesminister Ben Bradshaw well after his recent promotion - and hope his replacement, Hilary Benn, will continue the good liaison withthe region's fishing industry. The general opinion of the fishing leaders is that Mr ...
Blue spider crab is rare - but not a 'first'
Jul 02, 2007 ... Last week scientists were scratching their heads after a rare bluespider crab was caught off Milford Haven in South Wales. Soon to be on display at an aquarium in nearby Tenby, it wascaught a week ago in a pot set, and was hauled by nine-year-oldMichael MacNamara, enjoying a day's ...
New faces appointed to board of seafish
Jul 02, 2007 ... Seafish - the public body formed by the Government in 1981 tolook after the wide scope of fishing and associated businesses - hasappointed two new members to its industry representative board andreappointed a Scottish fishing representative, Iain MacSween. The new faces were ...
Robust, raucous - and enormous fun
Jul 02, 2007 ... Fern Britton has the best laugh on television. It's official.There's something so intoxicating about her uninhibited guffaws thatmake everything she is in so enjoyable. And while the This Morning sofa sometimes has to deal with themore serious side of life, there are no such ...
6,000 people sign petition to keep cinema open
Jul 02, 2007 ... More than 6,000 people have signed a petition to save a popularDevon cinema from closure. Campaigners are fighting to save Tiverton's Tivoli Cinema, whichfaces an uncertain future when the current manager, Mike Jackson,steps down on August 25. Campaign organiser Bryn ...
Queen presents special honour
Jul 02, 2007 ... The former president of the Royal Horticultural Society, SirRichard Carew Pole of Antony House in South East Cornwall, has beenpresented with the Victorian Medal of Honour by the Queen. The ceremony took place when the Queen conducted the officialopening of the new glasshouse at ...
Criticism grows over decision to make defence post 'part time'
Jul 02, 2007 ... A backlash was growing last night over the decision to handDefence Secretary Des Browne the extra responsibility of running theScotland Office, writes Matt Chorley, London Editor. Armed forces websites are awash with claims the move is "justanother indication of contempt for the ...
Rural areas need homes for rent, Brown told
Jul 02, 2007 ... Gordon Brown today begins his first full week as Prime Ministerfacing calls to live up to his promises on affordable housing. Mr Brown made the issue of getting on the housing ladder a keyplank of his leadership campaign and announced last week that Housingminister Yvette Cooper ...
Military veterans honour 70 years of bravery
Jul 02, 2007 ... Veterans of conflicts stretching back almost 70 years attended aceremony to honour their bravery. Around 150 serving and former members of the armed forces fromacross the South West met in Paignton, South Devon, to mark VeteransDay 2007 on Saturday. The national event is organised ...
Cleared of cruelty to children
Jul 02, 2007; ... An Exeter couple have been cleared of child cruelty charges by ajury's unanimous verdict after a five-day trial. The couple, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, appearedat Exeter Crown Court on two charges. They held hands in the dock as they waited for the jury to ...
West airports terror alert
Jul 02, 2007; ... The Westcountry was on terror alert last night with securitystepped up in the region as the threat to the UK grew after threefailed car bombings in London and Glasgow. The public in all parts of the country, including thosetraditionally deemed to be the safest, were warned there ...
Team aims to ski highest peak
Jul 02, 2007 ... Four British women are aiming to reach dizzy heights by becomingthe first female team to conquer the highest ski peak in the world. Sisters Suzy and Carole Madge, from Devon, have brought togetheran all-female ski mountaineering team to tackle Mount Mustagata, a7,500m-high mountain ...
War hero accuses medical services of 'complacency'
Jul 02, 2007 ... A westcountry war hero has accused the head of Britain's defencemedical services of "complacency" over the treatment of woundedsoldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Surgeon Capt Rick Jolly, the only serviceman to be decorated byboth sides in the Falklands War, questioned claims made by ...
Secret talks could lead to even higher rail fares
Jul 02, 2007 ... Train fare rises have been discussed at secret talks between trainoperators and the Government. The Department for Transport has refused to reveal any details ofwhat was discussed at the meetings, but unions and passengers fearthe current cap on price rises for Saver tickets - ...
Hay barn goes up in flames
Jul 02, 2007 ... A barn containing 30 tonnes of hay at a Devon farm caught fireyesterday. The blaze broke out off Days Pottles Lane in Exminster, EastDevon, at about 10.45am. Four fire crews and a water bowser were called in to tackle thefire, which is believed to have been ...
Communities carry on the crusade for green issues
Jul 02, 2007 ... Totnes THE relevance of Totnes to readers of the Buenos Aires Herald is not immediately obvious. But believe it or not, an environmentalcampaign group in South Devon is headline news in Argentina. But the international press - including a Mexican daily - arenot the only ...
Jewish chaplain who fought for dachau victims
Jul 02, 2007 ... Rabbi Abraham J. Klausner, the first Jewish chaplain in the UnitedStates Army to arrive at the Dachau concentration camp after itsliberation in 1945, and a strong voice for thousands of Holocaustsurvivors who remained in displaced persons camps for years after thewar, has died at his ...
The netherland's most influential member of the Salvation Army
Jul 02, 2007 ... Alida Bosshardt, named this year as one of the 100 mostinfluential members of the Salvation Army of all time, has died aged94. She was best known for having established a centre in Amsterdam'sred-light district for prostitutes and drug addicts. Major Bosshardt, as she was ...
Lecturer who challenged concepts of animal rights
Jul 02, 2007 ... Michael Leahy challenged the concept of animal rights thatunderlies campaigns such as those against animal experimentation andthe use of animals for food. In Against Liberation: Putting Animals in Perspective (1991),Leahy, a lecturer at the University of Kent, examined the ...
Farmers ask to get on the internet and watch out for raves
Jul 02, 2007 ... Farmers are being told to surf the Internet to find out aboutillegal raves planned for the countryside this summer. Landowners are told to search social networking websites such asMySpace and Facebook for information posted online about thegatherings. The Local Government ...
Albatross that got a little lost
Jul 02, 2007; ... An endangered species of albatross, only spotted once before inEurope, has been rescued from the Westcountry coast after being blownoff course by the bad weather. The Yellow-nosed albatross, native of South America and India, wasfound at a Somerset holiday camp's caravan park ...
Will Cameron have reshuffle?
Jul 02, 2007 ... The Tories yesterday refused to deny speculation that partyleader David Cameron would reshuffle his Shadow Cabinet this week.Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said the matter was a decision forMr Cameron - but his leader would at some point put in place the"best team" to take the fight ...
Million homeless in Pakistan floods
Jul 02, 2007 ... Floods due to a cyclone and rain have left as many as 100 peopledead in Pakistan, a senior relief official said yesterday, as thegovernment appealed for donations of tents to shelter about onemillion people left homeless by the flooding. Vast areas of Baluchistan were submerged with ...
Dark reality of rural poverty - Campbell
Jul 02, 2007; ... One in five people in the countryside are living in poverty andthe chocolate box image of rural life "hides a darker reality"according to the Liberal Democrats. And the Westcountry is singled out for being one of the areasworst hit by low pay and high levels of seasonal ...
Youths arrested after shed fire
Jul 02, 2007 ... Police arrested two youths suspected of deliberately setting fireto a large derelict shed in Cornwall. Firefighters from Falmouth andTruro tackled the blaze in a two-storey wooden building at a shipyardin Ponsharden, Penryn, shortly after 5pm yesterday. Police arrestedtwo young men on ...
Holiday homes 'may be torched by extremists'
Jul 02, 2007 ... A young Cornish nationalist has warned that extremists couldtorch English-owned holiday homes unless steps are taken to solvethe affordable housing crisis. Jack Bolitho, 18, fears extreme nationalist groups could actbecause of the dearth of affordable properties for local ...
Healthy decision may be start of slippery slope
Jul 02, 2007 ... 6 am, Sunday, July 1 in the Year of our Lord, 2007: the appointedhour when an English social custom stretching back more generationsthan any of us have lived long enough to remember was ended -forever. Sparking up in a pub will now earn you the pariah status oncereserved to ...
Bar manager's health damaged by passive smoking
Jul 02, 2007 ... Bar manager Richard Raczynski-Floyd could not wait for the ban onsmoking to begin yesterday. Mr Raczynski-Floyd, who manages Coolings Wine Bar in Exeter, hasnever smoked a cigarette, but last year the 51-year-old was diagnosedwith Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. He ...
What does the smoking ban mean?
Jul 02, 2007 ... It is against the law to smoke in most enclosed and substantiallyenclosed public places and workplaces. This includes public transport and work vehicles used by more thanone person. Staff smoking rooms and indoor smoking areas are no longerallowed. No-smoking signs ...
Smoking ban 'will cost small pubs pounds1,000 a week'
Jul 02, 2007; ... Small Westcountry pubs renowned for their drinks rather than foodcould see their takings plummet by up to pounds1,000 a week becauseof the smoking ban, one leading publican has claimed. Non-smoker Steve Scarff, chairman of the Plymouth LicensedVictuallers Association (LVA) and the ...
Just like old times, you'll find me in the beer garden
Jul 02, 2007 ... Once or twice a week during those endless summers of childhood,Dad would bundle me into his old black Jag and we would go out "for alittle drive". This, of course, was a euphemism. The words actually meant gettingaway from mother for an hour or two and having a few beers. And ...
Hunt for missing 10-year-old boy
Jul 02, 2007 ... A search was under way in Cornwall last night after a ten-year-old boy disappeared from the street where he lives. Coastguards,police and the RAF joined the hunt for the boy, who went missing inPorthleven at about 7.30pm. By 9pm, around 20 coastguard, in additionto police and a ...
Christian belief is such a mish-mash
Jul 03, 2007 ... Marc Rasell and Dominic Murphy take me to task for discarding theBible as a work of fact, but it begins with giants in the Earth andbehemoths (sea monsters) - how else would you define mythology? The Book of Revelation, which both men hold in such good stead,most theologians agree ...
Greens are in league with wind profiteers
Jul 03, 2007 ... To prove his point, albeit in a somewhat obscure way, Theo Hopkins("Global warming denial is familiar") informs us that Friends of theEarth had to "take on" the nasty fuel industries to get lead removedfrom petrol. Small wonder that it took some 15 years. As he admits to once ...
What if climate alarmists are wrong?
Jul 03, 2007 ... I regret that your correspondent Gerry Matthews is so convinced bythe theories that blame humans for global warming that it has blurredhis vision. He accuses Peter Wyatt and myself of "pouring scorn on the ideathat human activity is affecting climate change". On the contrary, ...
At last, some truth about wind power
Jul 03, 2007 ... It seems the truth is coming out at last when we have no less aperson than Alistair Darling making a damning statement on wind-generated electricity: "On very hot days or very cold days, if thewind doesn't blow, then you would have a big problem." Opponents of windfarms have said ...
How sure are unitary bid backers?
Jul 03, 2007 ... I AGREE with Mebyon Kernow leader Dick Cole about CornwallCounty Council's leaflet/questionnaire and its late endeavours toconsult the public on the unitary authority bid. But I am concerned at misinformation in the article by yourLondon Editor, Matt Chorley, which said that if ...
Bending the knee
Jul 03, 2007 ... O w ROGERS, of Bodmin, says only the Tories can win the numbersgame to remove Labour and implies that it is a waste of time votingUKIP or Lib-Dem because they are too small to oust Labour. What he doesn't seem to grasp is that as far as UKIP is concernedit makes no difference ...