A long-standing reporter, known for her can-do attitude and passion for local news, will move on to a job at a daily newspaper later this month.

Clarissa Place started her first job as a trainee reporter on the Sidmouth Herald in August 2014.

The now 26-year-old has spent the last five years working her way up the ladder, becoming a first-rate journalist with a passion for local news.

Clarissa was promoted to senior reporter in 2017 and is well-known around the town for her enthusiastic disposition and cheery demeanour, and for sometimes skipping around the town.

The big stories she has worked on include the Admiral Nurse campaign - her near-constant coverage helped the project get the publicity it needed to raise more than £100,000 over the space of 13 months.

She covered the 'post box romance' story in 2015, when she came across a woman taking a picture of a post box in Market Square.

Being a typical journalist, unable to just pass it by, Clarissa asked what she was doing and discovered that it was the spot where the woman's parents met and fell in love during the war.

Clarissa helped to tell the story of well-known Sidmouth resident, Gertrude 'Topsy' Hindley, who until she turned 103 never owned a television.

And, she also secured an exclusive on the latest business park application in May 2018.

Clarissa is moving on to be a Norfolk specialist reporter on the Eastern Daily Press, another Archant publication, based in Norwich.

Speaking about her time on the Herald, Clarissa said: "I have been very fortunate to call Devon my home for the last five years. I knew I was lucky to work here the moment I walked in to Sidmouth for the first time during the folk festival in 2014.

"I've been able to work with not just the Sidmouth community, but Branscombe, Beer and Ottery, and each place is filled with people that want to do the best they can for the place they live.

"It has been a great honour to reflect the hard work of so many groups and individuals trying to make a change, highlighting an issue or just bringing the community together for a good cause.

"Thank you Sidmouth, it has been a wonderful five years."