West Buckland’s Summer Fair will return on Saturday, June 28 for an afternoon of activities and an evening of entertainment.

From 3pm until 6pm, attendees will have the chance to enjoy a dog show, games and a raffle, a model railway, independent stalls, and a range of refreshments.

A vintage tractors, trucks and car show will also take place in the afternoon.

From 6pm, entertainment will be provided by The Bird Dogs, who will play crowd favourites from the 60s and 70s. A bar and food will be available into the evening.

The Summer Fair will take place at West Buckland Village Hall and on the playing field on Silver Street, from 3pm until late.

The president, Richard Williams welcomed 29 members to the June meeting of the Monument Probus Club of Wellington, held at the Beambridge Inn, Sampford Arundel.

After a brief business session, the president announced the speaker for the morning, club member John Williams and the title of his talk “The Most Powerful Man in Hollywood”.

Mr Williams revealed that, probably due to a career in journalism, spanning nearly 50 years, he had developed a strong interest in “murder, mystery and mayhem”. This coupled with a strong background in film and TV journalism had resulted in him researching and compiling his talk.

Central to his presentation was the life of Eddie Mannix, one of the most influential and ruthless figures within the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer organisation at a time when the “studio system” dominated the movie industry – and its stars – during the “Golden Age of Hollywood”.

Between the early 1930s and the late 1950s, Mannix effectively took on the role of MGM’s “Mr Fixit”. Together with Howard Strickling, the studio’s manipulative public relations chief, he was instrumental in covering some of the biggest scandals that could have severely damaged the reputation of the company and destroyed the careers of some of its top box office stars.

During his illustrated presentation, Mr Williams spoke on a series of sordid incidents in the private lives of such major stars as Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, Loretta Young, Judy Garland and Van Johnson. In each case, by a mixture of blackmail, bribery, physical threats and fake publicity, Mannix and Strickling simply made the crisis disappear, leaving the reputation of the stars and MGM intact.

Following a lively question-and-answer session, Mr Williams was thanked by the president.

The next meeting will be at the Beambridge Inn on Thursday, July 3, at the slightly earlier time of 10.45am, when David Ramsden will give a presentation, entitled, “Climate Change and the Ecological Crisis – What’s All the Fuss About?”.

Monument Probus Club welcomes new members. More information can be obtained from the Hon Secretary via email at [email protected]

Wellington Bible Society Action Group are hosting a coffee morning on Saturday, June 28 to fundraise for the Bible Society’s prisons appeal.

The coffee morning will take place from 10am until 11.30am at the United Reformed Church on Wellington’s Fore Street.

Attendees can join a sponsored silence, enjoy home-made cakes, tea and coffee, or visit the book stall.

Everyone is welcome.

Wellington members of the local bus user group covering Wellington and Wiveliscombe are holding a stall outside the Coop in Wellington on Friday, June 20, between 10am and 12pm.

Meet us to find out more about the bus service on the Taunton to Wellington and Tiverton route. We are pleased that most services are now operated by brand new electric buses which are quieter, cleaner and more comfortable than the old diesel buses. It is the first time for many years that the Taunton area has been provided with new vehicles, so we hope many local people with use them.

And also come and find out about the new Wellington to Wiveliscombe and West Buckland service, initially introduced on a trial basis two mornings a week (Tuesday and Thursdays) but we hope that this can be expanded in time.

We hope to have timetables to give out on the day but First Bus have printed very few of their all route timetable; however we will have information on all routes serving Wellington.

We will be happy to receive feedback to pass on to the bus companies and local politicians.

An urgent appeal has been received from Christian Response to Eastern Europe (cr2ee) for bicycles for all ages.

We are aware many Wellington folk support this charity who take aid to Ukraine and Moldova so please get in touch if you have a bike no longer needed and we will collect.

Contact David on 07773 579809.

Residents’ hopes for a climate friendly Wellington by 2025 have fallen short, as their plans, drawn up in 2010, aren’t met.

In April 2010, Taunton Deane’s Local Strategic Partnership worked with Taunton’s Transition Town voluntary group to lead a series of workshops to help residents consider the potential impacts of climate change on their way of living.

The following May, Transition Town Wellington met to discuss the same issue and together, they produced a document envisioning a green, low carbon Wellington for 2025.

The groups’ approach in producing this report “wasn’t of doom and gloom” they said, “but to foster a response to the challenges they faced at a community level.”

Among their hopes were a local knitting co-op that only used local wool, a Wellington wind farm, composting toilets, a community bartering centre, solar panels on every roof, and horse and cart only parking bays.

Also envisioned were changes to legislation, banning bottled water, tumble dryers, and oil and gas central heating, as well as marking the town’s sustainability efforts with the big “Christmas switch-off”, as opposed to the current annual event in Wellington, the Christmas lights switch-on.

Despite these short falls, Chairman of Transition Town Wellington, Anita Roy says there have been some successes, including a new fleet of electric buses, a new community farm, and a “fabulous” green corridor.

It was also announced this morning (June 12) that the hoped for Wellington railway station has received the go-ahead from Chancellor Rachel Reeves after the Treasury confirmed that the spending review would provide funding to support its reopening.

Anita said: “This report is a bit of a TARDIS allowing us to time-travel back 15 years to hear what people then thought today's Wellington would look like.

“Sustainable, resilient, single-use plastic-free, with water harvesting, community composting and loads of locally grown food. Sounds brilliant! Who wouldn’t want to live there?

“I am hugely grateful to these pioneering visioners for kickstarting the Transition movement here, and to all those who, with ingenuity and creativity, are still helping to shape a better, more inclusive and resilient town for future generations.”

Secretary for Transition Town Wellington, Kate Holloway said: “It has been interesting re reading this report; it seems a long time ago that I sat with a number of people in the Church Hall and discussed what we would hope to see in 2025.

“Such a lot has happened that we could never have imagined, in particular the COVID Pandemic and war in Europe which has had a massive impact on all of us.

“From TTW’s point of view the main successes in the last 15 years have been the growth in community spaces where we can grow food, support each other and care for wildlife.

“The partnership with the Wellington Town Council, who now cares for 65 acres for the benefit of people, wildlife and the climate has also been very positive.

“Is it time to have another Visioning Event?”