All of the towns and villages in the area were built before the age of the motor car, narrow lanes, quaint cottages and thatched roofs are all part of the charm and the reason we all want to visit.
But of course if we all jump in the car, the lanes get clogged and there's nowhere to park.
Our choices are limited, knock down some of the buildings, widen the roads and concrete over the green spaces or simply find an alternative method of getting there..... read more

Once a week we put out the rubbish and it is collected and taken away . We never really thought about where it went but the word "landfill" should have given us a clue. It has all simply been hidden in a hole in the ground like an old quarry or clay pit. All the plastic and other stuff that does not rot away will be there forever. Now we are simply running out of places to hide it. There are many other compelling reasons why we should "reduce, reuse and recycle" and the benefits of composting can already be seen in our garden

There are discussions going on about how we can provide our ever increasing power needs and whether we can produce enough from renewable sources. The problem locally is that the wind farms, wave generators are all built around the coastline, both on and off shore or in the open moorland, and tend to dominate the view. Maybe by taking simple measures we can reduce our energy needs. Turning off appliances and lights when they are not being used, energy saving lightbulbs, timers and properly set thermostats do reduce energy as we have seen by regular energy usage monitoring.

Unlike other parts of the country, and the world, water supply locally is not much of a problem. The main issue in the West Country is to maintain a high standard of water around our coasts and beaches . This means controlling how much and what we put into the sewers.