Teignmouth Post and Gazette No 4877 Friday 8 August 1975

“FILTHY BEASTS”

What could be described as the affair of the Council officer and the “filthy beasts”. Teignmouth promenade and beach are not as clean as they might be, but the Council cleaning staff is undermanned, with dire warnings from Whitehall about preventing the rates going through the roof. Those who complain the loudest about the rates are also making loud noises about the unemptied litter bins.

The public are not as fussy as they might be about using the bins provided, the only nation sufficiently disciplined to bother with tidiness and correct disposal of litter being the Germans.

PETS COME ON HOLIDAY TOO

The Coventry family of six who have been coming to Teignmouth for 25 years used to leave their pets with a neighbour, who has now moved. So Mr. and Mrs. Bird brought their pets with them to the Bay Hotel - Santa a 9 year old Alsatian, their 16 year old black cat Sambo, two rabbits Smokey and Skippy, and two pigeons Booey and Charlotte. They bedded down in Mr. Harper’s Range Rover outside overnight, and in the day they stayed in the family’s beach hut near the Point.

PC SAVED A GIRL’S LIFE

A young Teignmouth police officer saved the life of a 23 year old girl in Plymouth on Tuesday evening, as she was about to jump 50ft to her death from the roof of a city store. He is PC Keilson Foote, from Ashdown, Woodway Road.

The rescue came when the girl asked for a packet of cigarettes, after officers had been talking to her for nearly an hour, trying to tempt her back to safety. PC Foote handed her a cigarette, then crossed the safety barrier to give her a light. Standing only inches away from the edge of the roof, he held out a match, and as the girl came near, he grabbed her wrist.

DAIRY FARMERS’ “DESPERATE PLIGHT”

MP Mr. Robin Maxwell-Hyslop was among 18 Conservative MPs from the SouthWest who had an emergency meeting with the Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Fred Peart, in the House of Commons.

Subjects raised included the failure of the devaluation of the “green pound” to meet the farming industry’s increased costs. The greatest concern was over the desperate plight of the dairy farmer. Milk production is a seven-day a week job, and the Government’s proposal to abolish the “tied cottage” would denude the dairy farmers of the ability to keep their workers. Mr. Peart was not at all unsympathetic.

Conservatives recognise that the Labour Government comprises more urban than rural Members, and this is probably the greatest obstacle between the farmer and a fair deal.

SHIPPING

All nineteen arrivals were carrying grain from European countries again.

RAILWAY STAMPS

A new set of stamps on sale at the Post Office on August 13 celebrates the 150th year since Stephenson’s “Locomotion” moved down the tracks of the first public steam railway, in 1825. In Devon, this issue marks another anniversary - ten years since the return of the steam engine to the Dart Valley’s two steam lines.

On August 13, Dart Valley will be issuing a special envelope, known as a first day cover, to celebrate, and the use of two special handstamps, available at Paignton and Buckfastleigh, for letters in the special posting boxes. Buckfastleigh’s unique handstamp will read “Return of steam 10th anniversary, 13 August 1975, Buckfastleigh, Devon” for one day only.