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Editor's pick: The best of the DevonLive.com week
Jobs, crime, drama, love and loss - the best stories from the last seven days that you might have missed
Patrick Phelvin
It's been another busy week on DevonLive.com. We've had a visit from a roads minister about railways - he went to the wrong Exeter station for his high-profile announcement – but in fairness wouldn't be the first person to have been muddled by the existence of Central and St David's.
The Government's rail plans were thoroughly publicised and discussed nationally but our team produced plenty of important and entertaining content that perhaps escaped your attention. It's a varied output which takes in jobs, crime, drama, love and loss.
A hard-hitting and relatively long-running investigation by Alex Richards into the reasons for an Exeter City councillor's resignation culminated in an article explaining that Roger Spackman had quit after facing allegations of downloading child abuse images. It's not something we'd run without careful thought, but we believe there's a strong public interest in getting this kind of story out there.
Roger Spackman protesting with union colleagues in Exeter City Centre in 2008
Similarly our health and education reporter Anita Merritt's excellent run of articles holding NHS Trusts to account doesn't make easy reading. Greg Taylor died after a hit and run accident four years ago. His mother, Beverly, is asking for an apology from medics because an ambulance took 13 minutes to reach the scene and she thinks more could have been done to save her son. Beverly was prompted to get in touch because of Anita's bold work in highlighting alleged problems with our ambulance service.
In the north of the county there are similar concerns about the state of the NHS. Joel Cooper's article, based on a report leaked from the North Devon Hospital, is as important as any other piece of local journalism I've seen this month.
On a lighter note Anita followed the story of Pat Rossiter, an 82-year-old widower who is looking for love. Pat has been lonely since the death of his wife and we're hoping to line him up for a date before Christmas.
Lewis Clarke demonstrated a light touch when he filmed the opening of Uffculme School's new theatre (below). The Venue will be available for community use. At its official opening, by the actress Caroline Quentin, pupils sang, danced and played a variety of musical instruments. Lewis's video captured the magic of the night brilliantly.
In South Devon Caroline Abbott pulled together a revealing story about the goings-on behind the scenes at the Ministry of Pudding, where dozens of jobs are threatened at two factories. We'd covered the story before but Caroline managed to publish more details about the state of the business and the potential timing of a factory closure.