It was great to see work commencing on the former Barclays Bank premises in the High Street last week. This is yet another sign that commercial activity in the town is increasing.

A To Let sign has appeared on the premises and upon investigation, on the agent’s website, I note that the ground floor is available for a rent of £33,000 per annum. It says that the upper floors are to be used for residential accommodation. It will be interesting to see what type of business eventually occupies the ground floor. Also on the commercial websites I note that a Sidmouth guest house is on the market as well as a High Street café and a building site development which has consent for seven dwellings in the Woolbrook area.

Something that has interested me over the past couple of months is the substantial movement of pebbles on Sidmouth beach due to the recent variety of weather conditions. Pebbles are right up to the seafront wall on occasions but when you go down the next day there are hardly any pebbles left in that area at all. This just goes to show the power of the sea and explains how our landscapes have changed over the years.

Two types of scams are currently very prominent in the news and I must say that unless you have your wits about you it would be so easy to fall victim.
One is the text messages purporting to be from courier companies saying that a parcel is due to be delivered and you should click on a link for more information. They appear to come from companies that are well known. The other scam is the recorded phone calls from scammers purporting to be from the National Crime Agency. The sooner the criminals doing this are charged for these offences the better.
And while on the topic of crimes that annoy me, I have to bring up dog theft. This is getting closer to us and I sincerely hope those responsible have the book thrown at them. The distress this causes to the owners and their families is unimaginable.

I have recently taken possession of a large number of slides from the 60s and 70s. I was excited to see them on an old projector until it blew up half way through viewing them! I took them to Kate at Honiton Photobox who got them onto a USB stick for me. They can now be viewed on a computer, on a TV with a USB port and can be copied and sent to friends and family. Well worth doing if you have slides in your possession from days-gone-by.

It was another blank weekend for Sidmouth’s three league cricket teams with the rain falling again last Saturday (May 15). I cannot remember the first three league games of a season being rained off and let us hope that the weather soon improves for all concerned. We are certainly paying for a dry April. This Saturday the 1st XI are at home to Exeter, the 2nd XI are away at Exeter and the 3rd XI have a home game against Shobrooke Park.
The rain didn’t stop the rugby at The Blackmore last Saturday where a game took place in appalling conditions. So good to see live sport taking place as I wandered past.