Hemyock

People looking to protect their home against the results of a heavy downpour often consider sand bags. However, a filled sandbag soon rots. Similarly, having empty sandbags means that sand has to be found.

Forgive me if you are familiar with the Boundaries Commission, but that is the most talked about topic within DCC at the moment.  The Boundaries Commission asked DCC and MDDC to put forward their views on Unitary Council. This means that a Unitary Council would provide all the services that DCC and MDDC and put it all under one management. DCC put theirs, which was the whole of the County of Devon to be Unitary status. MDDC view was that they should stay as they are, but with joint working with other District Councils, but if they had to be Unitary, they would join up with East Devon DC and Exeter City.

In a time when many problems are affecting us, both nationally and globally, I thought it would be nice to write about something more cheerful.

The organisers would like to thank all those who helped or supported St Mary's Church in any way to make the day a success despite the atrocious weather.  £1663 was raised which was only £150 below last years figure.

As part of Heritage Weekend, and in line with the 900th anniversary of the founding of the Diocese, the Devon Historic Churches Trust is inviting all of us to visit as many churches as possible on September 13th. And if you want to get sponsorship for your efforts, then you can not only help the Trust but also the Devon church of your choice. Proceeds are split 50/50. You can choose your own rules for sponsoring, eg visiting churches with spires, churches dedicated to a particular saint, or all the churches in one deanery.

One man's rubbish.

I spend a lot of mental energy and self-discipline trying to stop myself becoming a grumpy old man. In particular I have given up complaining about issues like 'You can't get anyone to mend anything these days' (which isn't really that true anyway) or about the plethora of signs on our roads.

Hard pressed families in the Hemyock area who are finding the cost of fruit and vegetables high and the size of their gardens too small to be productive may welcome the discussions at a forthcoming Parish Council meeting (Wednesday 6th August).