Uk

National competition opens to find UK’s best beach hut for life

Life’s a Beach Hut: A brand new competition celebrating the UK’s iconic and much-loved coastline Beach Huts has been launched by Ipswich-based insurance specialist firm, Ryan’s Insurance - with over £600 of prizes up for grabs.

In collaboration with Millie’s Beach Huts, the inaugural competition is calling on the UK’s 20,000-plus beach hut owners to come together and compete to...

Exeter Airport

Exeter Airport announces Exeter-Belfast City Airport route

Exeter Airport is to see the introduction of a service to Belfast City Airport from 28 August 2020 it was announced today.

Stobart Air, operator of Aer Lingus Regional, will base five ATR72-600 aircraft at Belfast City Airport.

The airline will operate up to 4 weekly return flights from Exeter Airport to Belfast City Airport this autumn with fares starting from £34.99 one...

Doh! Homer’s keepers are seeing double…

Keepers at Living Coasts, Torquay’s coastal zoo, had to do a double-take recently when they discovered that European common lobster Homer had moulted for the first time in two years.

Aquarist Sam Worthington was particularly pleased, as it was the first time he’d moulted in her time at the charity zoo: “This exoskeleton is almost perfect - right down to the antennae and the eyes....

Zoo keepers get fish to clean their own aquarium

Ingenious aquarists at Living Coasts, Torquay’s coastal zoo and aquarium, have trained strange fish to help clean their tank of a naturally-occurring pest.

Filefish, or leatherjackets, have been introduced into the charity zoo’s large stingray tank to help control an invasive anemone.

Aquarist Tom Fielding: “Aiptasia is a common temperate and tropical sea anemone. It comes in...

Zoo keepers save animals after storm damage

Keepers at Paignton Zoo saved scores of animals after recent storms damaged a key building.

High winds ripped open a 36-metre-long air vent in the roof of Reptile Tropics at around 7.30 one morning, exposing vulnerable animals, plants and electrics. Staff rushed to save lizards, snakes, turtles, iguanas, chameleons and geckos as the temperature in the building dropped. Meanwhile,...

How the face of the nation has changed in a decade

The National Geographic Database of Great Britain, maintained by Ordnance Survey (OS), is the largest of its kind in the world.

Behind the paper maps we all know, there is a single giant digital master map of Great Britain.

During the past decade it has grown to contain more than 500 million unique geographic features. Since January 1st 2010 OS has made 360 million updates...

Childcare is more expensive than a University Degree

The Government has released its Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents 2019, reporting a rise in the number of families that found it “difficult” or “very difficult” to meet their childcare costs. In conjunction with this survey, new researchledbychildcareplatform, Y​oopies UK​, reveals that the UK ranks int he top three most expensive countries for childcare in Europe, surpassing the...

Make 'Walk All Over Cancer' your New Year resolution

People in the South West are being challenged to kick start the New Year by taking steps to support Cancer Research UK.

The charity is encouraging everybody who feels they’ve had too many mince pies or helpings of Christmas pudding to sign up now to Walk All Over Cancer and get sponsored to walk 10,000 steps every day for a month.

In the South West, almost a quarter (22 per...

Santander officially opens redesigned branch in Plymouth

On Tuesday 7 January 2020, Santander UK will officially open its newly redesigned branch at 157-159 Armada Way, Plymouth, PL1 1JF. The new-look branch has been designed to deliver even better customer service and community-friendly banking.

The branch will be opened by Toby Gorniak MBE and Jo Gorniak, founders and directors of local charity Street Factory CIC, who will cut the ribbon...

How to train your…

If animal training makes you think of tricks and shows, think again. Top zoos use training to improve animal welfare, reduce the need for risky general anaesthetics and to keep both animals and people safe.

For example, bird keeper Sam Gray has trained Alfie Junior the Southern cassowary – as tall as a person and part bird, part dinosaur – to follow a target, which means she can get...

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