West Country Voices

West Country Voices is a community-driven online newspaper that focuses on the regions of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and Somerset. We empower local residents to share their stories and highlight the issues that affect their lives, especially when they feel let down by their elected officials. Our platform is dedicated to amplifying the voices of the community and fostering engagement on important matters.

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What do the new Government proposals on peatland burning mean for Dartmoor?

2 weeks ago | westcountryvoices.co.uk | Tony Whitehead

Nature-rich peatland habitats are to be better protected under plans set out by the Government today (Monday 31 March), which would ban burning on peat in the uplands, improving health and wellbeing of people in nearby communities. This is a very welcome statement from the government today. It recognises the value of our precious peatlands for both nature and carbon, and it recognises the impacts that burning in our uplands has on communities.
‘The whole thing stinks’ - former MP who branded South West Water ‘shameful’ joins its parent company

2 weeks ago | westcountryvoices.co.uk | Philippa Davies

The irony meter must be peaking like one of South West Water’s storm overflow monitors. Former East Devon Conservative MP Simon Jupp, who was an outspoken critic of the utility firm, has taken a job with its parent company, Pennon, advising on community engagement. During his time as an MP Mr Jupp did plenty of mud-slinging at South West Water, usually over the frequent reports of sewage spills in his constituency’s coastal towns.
'The food system as a whole urgently needs to be transformed'

3 weeks ago | westcountryvoices.co.uk | Philippa Davies

“Wherever it is found, hunger highlights the fault lines of inequality that run through that society.”In our society, that could indicate the effects of political austerity measures, including the latest benefit cuts. On a global level, it could point to the people in the world’s poorest nations whose crops are being destroyed by the climate crisis. Hunger affects the powerless.
Mothers stage 24-hour hunger strike in Plymouth to highlight child poverty

3 weeks ago | westcountryvoices.co.uk | Philippa Davies

Celebration lunches, chocolates and a glass of fizz will be on the menu this Sunday, 30 March, as families get together for Mothering Sunday. But for one group of women in Plymouth, the table will be bare – except for leaflets, stickers and other material demanding an end to child hunger and poverty. Six local women are taking part in a 24-hour hunger strike as part of the Mother’s Manifesto campaign. They and their supporters will be at Plymouth Sundial between 11am and 4pm.
"Like using the Mona Lisa to mop up spilt wine..."

1 month ago | westcountryvoices.co.uk | Rob Hopkins

I’m incandescent, furious, overflowing with rage at Dartington Trust’s ability to continually make the wrong decisions, decisions that show they are out of touch with pretty much everything. In particular, it has just been announced that they plan to revoke the wonderful Agroforestry Research Trust’s lease on their extraordinary temperate forest garden on the Dartington Estate.
Could group's ‘groundbreaking’ legal claim against South West Water turn the tide against sewage pollution?

1 month ago | westcountryvoices.co.uk | Philippa Davies

“We watched as the beaches emptied, and the car parks emptied, and there was a sense of ‘this cannot keep happening’.”It was the worst possible time for yet another serious sewage pollution incident in Exmouth. On Wednesday, 14 August 2024 – right in the middle of the summer tourist season – a sewage pipe burst near the town’s main pumping station, leaking waste into a stream and then into the sea.
New festival in May will celebrate ‘the power and beauty’ of Dartmoor

2 months ago | westcountryvoices.co.uk | Philippa Davies

The stark and ancient beauty of Dartmoor is world-renowned. Its power to stir a deep emotional connection in people was evidenced by the thousands who converged on the moor in January 2023, fighting for their right to roam freely across those wild landscapes and camp under those wide starry skies. Now a new festival – taking place in May this year – will explore and celebrate Dartmoor’s history and mythology, the art and music it inspires and the spirit it awakens in people.
Protest highlights ‘corrupt’ jailing of climate activists as they appeal against their sentences

2 months ago | westcountryvoices.co.uk | Philippa Davies

Campaigners from Devon were among around 1,000 people who staged a peaceful protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Thursday 30 January. The Strand was closed to traffic as a 90-minute mass sit-in took place, patrolled by large numbers of police officers. Inside the building, judges were hearing an appeal against the disproportionate jail sentences given to 16 Just Stop Oil activists in 2024 – a total of 41 years behind bars for non-violent environmental protests.
New powers could stop social media lies from running riot

2 months ago | westcountryvoices.co.uk | Philippa Davies

Elon Musk doesn’t like it. Stronger legal measures are in the pipeline to rein in the spread of dangerous lies and misleading claims on social media platforms including X, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Google. The racist riots last summer, following the Southport murders, didn’t only show how social media disinformation can provoke real-life violence on Britain’s streets.
'To fight disinformation, we need to understand it'

Jan 24, 2025 | westcountryvoices.co.uk | Philippa Davies

Could there have been a more topical time to focus on social media disinformation? The day after Donald Trump was sworn in (again) as US President, a live online event on the issue took place, co-organised by West Country Voices. We saw how Elon Musk’s X became a MAGA mouthpiece during Trump’s 2024 election campaign, disseminating damaging untruths about the Democrats to millions of users on X.