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A new festival celebrating the Postman Poet of North Devon is taking place at Heanton Punchardon in North Devon this June. The Edward Capern Festival begins on Devon Day, Thursday 4th June 2026, with an evening of music and poetry at St Augustine's Church to celebrate the life, poems and songs of 'Devonshire's Robbie Burns'. The festival continues on Friday, 5th June, with a Capern Countryside Exhibition in Wrafton Hall and the launch of the first Edward Capern Award for the 'Postman Poet' of 2026. There's a £500 prize for the winner, sponsored by Devon CPRE. Devon CPRE's Steve Crowther explains why the charity is supporting the event and urges 'citizen poets' to send their compositions to him by 29 May 2026. Email sjcrowther@btinternet.com with your entries and to buy tickets.

We've been helping our members living in and around the hamlet of Hawkchurch in East Devon, close to the borders with both West Dorset and Somerset, who are fighting proposals to site two large Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in the parish. BESS developers appear to favour the rural location because of its relative proximity to the Axminster Substation. Opponents are gearing up for two public inquiries starting on March 10th 2026. They are desperately trying to raise funds to finance their battle. Our short film explains their concerns.

2026 is a momentous year for Devon CPRE because it marks 100 years since the foundation of our national organisation, CPRE. It was the brainchild of two leading architects and town planners, Patrick Abercrombie and Guy Dawber, who realised that the rapid increase in motor transport, with all its knock-on effects, posed a major threat to the unprotected countryside. We’re proud of what we stand for, and we hope that in our centenary year, more people will see the value of joining us as members to celebrate 100 years of standing up for the countryside. Here in Devon, we are blessed to have some of the most beautiful landscapes anywhere in the world, including two stunning coastlines and two National Parks. Will you help us protect them?

Devon CPRE, the environmental campaign charity, has issued a battle call to supporters to sign and share an online petition against what would be one of Europe’s largest solar arrays

Devon CPRE is supporting the local community near Holsworthy in spearheading a campaign to ward off plans for a mega solar farm that would cover 2,700 acres, 10 times the size of any previous proposal.

The need for collective organisation to fight bad planning policies and decisions and the importance of evidence-based preservation were the themes running through this year's Devon CPRE AGM.

Devon CPRE is leading the fight against proposals to build the largest solar farm in Devon to date.

Throughout the summer of 2025, Devon CPRE has been using its new 'Decimation Game' to engage with people at Devon's agricultural shows who share the charity's concerns about changes that are threatening to decimate farming and the face of the countryside as we know it.

Devon CPRE's Chair Steve Crowther interviewed by ITV Westcountry's Richard Lawrence at the 2025 Devon County Show in a report about new government policies that threaten to decimate farming and take out ten percent of the county's agricultural land.

Love Devon? Care about Devon? Want to protect Devon for future generations?

The growing tension between expanding solar farms for renewable energy and preserving productive agricultural land, featuring a debate between farming and rural protection advocates.