The local elections have been a real talking point this week, but there’s plenty going on in the area — here are the big stories in this week’s Times.

• West Devon Borough Council (WDBC) has plenty of new blood following an election which saw the leader and several long-time councillors lose their seats.

• Dedicated work by Bere Alston’s youth to fundraise for a brand new shelter has paid off with a substantial grant of almost £10,000 by the National Lottery’s Awards For All scheme.

• A leukaemia sufferer from Tavistock will be jumping out of an aeroplane with a good friend in celebration of his 71st birthday and to raise funds for three worthy causes.

• A petition of more than 1,000 signatures calling for Tavistock’s bus station toilets to be reopened has been handed over to West Devon Borough Council for consideration.

• Having just completed the first of six mammoth fundraising challenges, trekking several of the world’s mountains, Claire Lemasurier is back in the gym and training after just a week off.

• Dartmoor enthusiasts are ‘furious’ after two recent outbreaks of graffiti vandalism on the moors near Princetown.

• A National Lottery funded project to combat social isolation through art is expanding to reach new rural communities.

• Coverage from the Bere Alston Carnival and the Harrowbarrow and Calstock May Day celebrations.

• A new creative space for printmaking has opened its doors in Tavistock.

• NINE pages covering all the local sport, including the start of the cricket season, and an exclusive interview with Harlequins’ latest signing, Tavistock’s own Luke Northmore.