The first UK trial to use contraception on wild hill ponies is at risk of failing, a charity says.
The Dartmoor Hill Pony Association is trying to reduce the slaughter of hundreds of foals each year because there is no market for them.
Two years ago a small number of mares were injected with contraceptives and now the charity wants to extend the trial to 100 animals.
However, it has been unable to find enough land for a new trial.
The pony charity said the first trial proved successful but it needed to carry out further tests, in a controlled area, to ensure the contraception would be effective across the moor.
'The last straw'
The contraceptive drug was donated by pharmaceuticals company, Pfizer, and imported from Australia.
The trial has the support of the Dartmoor National Park Authority, which described the ponies as "a national park emblem".
But Charlotte Faulkner, from the association, said if it was not able to get the land it would be "very much the last straw" for the scheme.
The charity had approached the Forestry Commission for permission to use a piece of of its land, but it was declined.
The commission said it wanted to enter into a long-term partnership with one environmental organisation to manage its estate "as a whole".
The aim is to reduce the slaughter of hundreds of unwanted foals each year
Ms Faulkner has appealed to any Dartmoor landowners for help finding suitable land.
"If there's anyone who can think of any ideas that might be able to help us get this project to work, please help us to do so," she said.
The storm destruction of the railway line connecting Devon and Cornwall to the rest of the UK will cost the South West economy millions of pounds each day, business leaders have claimed.
Network Rail said the line, which is hanging in mid-air, will take a minimum of six weeks to repair.
In Cornwall, storms have caused damage set to cost £14m to repair so far this year, the local council has estimated.
Across the South West more than 900 homes are still without power.
In Exeter, on Wednesday evening, a man was rescued from flood water at Silverton Mill.
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said he was found on the roof of his van. His condition is unknown.
In Kingsand and Cawsand in south-east Cornwall, the high tide overnight has caused further damage to the seafront buildings and walls.
Despite it being a windy night, the clock tower in Kingsand is still standing and structural engineers are expected to assess the building later.
Driving down to Seaton, it looks like a wasteland with broken branches and whole trees being pushed back by the sea.
Sand bags, rocks and boulders are scattered around and the Beach Cafe looks in a bad state.
Cornwall Council said the village clock tower was "in a dangerous condition" after it was battered by huge waves.
Following the destruction of the main railway line at Dawlish, Network Rail said it was "fully committed to restoring a key main line" and "work starts this morning".
Devon and Cornwall Business Council's Tim Jones said the closure was "hugely significant" and "hugely damaging" for the region's economy.
"We've done some initial assessments of what it will cost and we estimate it will be between £1m and £2m a day.
"The amount is based on estimates from last year when Cowley Bridge Junction was closed, disruption to business travellers, the amount lost from taxi companies and businesses around train stations - if you add it all up you come to the estimate we have.
"We've got to live with the problem of the Dawlish sea wall and come up with a financially viable solution."
But David Parlby, from the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce, said: "Financially we think it will cost £20m for each day the line is closed... to have it disconnected is a major blow."
Several homes are at risk in Dawlish after the sea wall was breached
Chris Pomfrett, chairman of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, said: "I think Dawlish has been an accident waiting to happen.
This, on top of the problems last year north of Exeter [Cowley Bridge Junction], asks the question when are we going to take a proper look at our transport infrastructure?
"If we want to get businesses to grow here and improve the economy, you have to have an absolutely resilient transport infrastructure."
'Totally destroyed'
On Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron announced an extra £100m for flood repairs across the country.
After chairing a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee, he said he had seen "the shocking pictures of the destroyed train line in Dawlish".
The police have cordoned off the area and, as far as they know, there has been no further movement.
Evacuated residents from nearby properties have had a second night out of their homes and the future is not good.
Engineers are coming back today, again to try and assess the situation.
Up to 150ft (46m) of railway track was destroyed and Dawlish station was also damaged on Wednesday.
Network Rail's Robin Gisby said: "What we will do in the next 48 hours is protect the line from what we understand will be another big storm over the weekend.
"So our concern at the moment is that the 260ft (80m) wall that's gone is leaving the rest of it exposed.
"We've got a lot of staff just protecting it and then we'll come up with a better assessment of how long it's going to take to rebuild."
In Plymouth, BBC Radio Devon's Jo Irving said the end of Hoe Road was "still cordoned off after waves totally destroyed part of the sea wall in two places".
BBC Radio Cornwall's Johnny O'Shea said there was debris everywhere in Seaton
In Porthleven, Cornwall, ten boats sank after the outer harbour was breached on Wednesday and a crane has been working to lift several boats out of the water.
Harbourmaster Phil Ward said: "We've got away very lightly, we've lost some stones and the lifeboat roof."
There is further flooding while power supplies and transport are disrupted after south-west England and south Wales were hit by a powerful storm.
Engineers have been working to restore power but more than 7,000 homes are still without electricity.
In Dawlish, Devon, a section of sea wall under the railway line collapsed, leaving the track suspended in mid-air.
David Cameron will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee later to consider the government's response.
It is the first time this year that the prime minister will have chaired a meeting of Cobra to discuss the floods and follows widespread criticism of Environment Secretary Owen Paterson's handling of the crisis.
Rail tracks at Dawlish appeared to run into the sea
In places, the track at Dawlish was suspended in mid-air
The prime minister's office said Mr Cameron was anxious to ensure that "all that can be done is being done".
Earlier, First Great Western said all lines between Exeter St Davids and Penzance were closed because of adverse weather conditions and it advised against travel for the rest of the day.
Part of the sea wall at Dawlish, which is between Exeter and Cornwall, has collapsed and the railway station and tracks have been severely damaged by huge waves, driven by gale-force winds.
Western Power Distribution said about 44,000 customers had been affected by power cuts since Tuesday afternoon and 7,400 homes in south-west England remained without power.
Overnight 'pasting'
The Met Office said gusts of up to 70mph and 20mm of rain had spread from the South West to south-west Wales and eastern Northern Ireland overnight.
Western Power Distribution said there had been high voltage faults due to debris being blown around in Devon and Cornwall.
A significant section of the West Pier in Brighton collapsed overnight
Teams of engineers worked through the night to try to fix the faults, and the company said it would also switch circuits to work around individual faults.
Phil Davies, network service manager for the company, said they had had "quite a pasting in the South West overnight".
"We are importing some staff from south Wales and the Midlands to help and we are confident we can get everybody back [with power] today."
Winds of up to 92mph (148km/h) were reported in the Isles of Scilly
In Wales, a number of main roads were closed by fallen trees or flooding.
Trees blocked the A465 Heads of the Valleys Road at Hirwaun, the A484 at Carmarthen and the A476 at Ffairfach in Carmarthenshire. The A484 has been blocked by flooding at Cenarth in Carmarthenshire.
Firefighters have also been called out to deal with dangerous structures. There have been two incidents in the Tenby area of Pembrokeshire with roofing being blown off buildings.
The Met Office has an amber severe weather warning - meaning "be prepared" - for wind for southern England between 08:00 and 15:00 GMT on Wednesday, as well as warnings for wind and rain for other parts of the UK.
The Environment Agency's severe flood warnings cover South Cornwall, South Devon from Start Point to Dawlish Warren, South Devon from Exmouth to Lyme Regis, Lyme Regis harbour, West Bay in Dorset, Weymouth seafront, Chiswell on the Isle of Portland, and two areas of Somerset - the A361 East Lyng to Burrowbridge, and Salt Moor and North Moor.
It also has about 70 flood warnings and more than 200 flood alerts in England and Wales.
BBC weather presenter Matt Taylor said there would be more stormy weather on Wednesday.
BBC Weather's Chris Fawkes: "As long as the jetstream continues to be in a locked position, we will continue to see storm after storm"
"There will be another bout of potentially damaging winds into the morning rush-hour," he said.
On Tuesday, the Prince of Wales met residents in the flood-hit Somerset Levels where thousands of hectares of land remain under water and whole villages have been cut off for weeks.
Somerset residents have expressed anger at the pace at which the Environment Agency and the government have responded.
Many said there has been a slow response from the authorities to the flooding, which has affected many parts of the Levels since December.
In Cornwall, the local authority estimated storms had caused more than £4m of damage across the county in the past month.
The Met Office said another band of rain was expected to arrive from the south on Thursday.
Tuesday 10 December 2013
32 KING ALFRED AND THE DANES. sea in long open boats, high at prow and stern, a moved by sails and oars. When they landed, the threw up an intrenchment to defend their boats, an then they seized all the horses they could find, an galloped over the country, burning and pillaging fa and wide. 5. King Egbert did his best to beat off these pirates but he died in 839, and the kings who succeeded hin were not so strong or so skilful as he was. Con sequently the Danes grew bolder. In 855 they passed a winter in the Isle of Sheppey; and from that tim: forward they began to settle in the country. Thl was the first step in the Danish conquest of England 6. Alfred was then a child. He was born in 84 the fourth son of King Ethelwulf, who succeed! Egbert. Erom his childhood he showed great lor of learning, but his early life was too active for hit to learn much from books. 7. Alfred’s three elder brothers were all kings England in turn; and with the third of them, Etlui red, Alfred shared the government. By this time I Danes had practically conquered the north and ■ of England, and it was all that Alfred and his brol I could do to defend Wessex against them. In H they fought nine great battles with the Danes. 8. Next year Ethelred died, and Alfred beca..... king at the age of twenty-two. He had a heavy 11 before him, for his kingdom was reduced to the west half of Wessex, while fresh swarms of DancM W constantly landing in England. For seven years kept up a gallant struggle, but in 878 he was I'm to take refuge in the marshes of Athelney in Somei and was almost driven to despair. %Iimi I Ihii;"1. looked worst, however, Alfred lulil v >llni I in which he was nobly sup-IIn immi ol VVchhcx, and he won a decisive IiihI Ill'1 l*aiiisli host at Ethandun, in ■Ml fill In tv ell 111 ■ the victory by blockading
There are two clues in Ptolemy's Geography (bk.II, ch.ii); near the the beginning of part 2, which reads: "Description of the south side below which is the Oceanus Britannicus [English Channel]. After the Ocrium Promontorium [Lizard Point, Cornwall] is the mouth of the Cenio¹ river 14*003 51°45 (then) the mouth of the Tamarus² river 15*40 52°10 (then) the mouth of the Iscas³ river 17*40 52°20 ..."
This river remains unidentified.
River Tamar, Devon/Cornwall.
River Exe, Devon.
and also the very last sentence of part 2: "Next to these [the Durotriges], but more to the west, are the Dumnoni, whose towns are: Voliba 14*45 52°00 Uxella¹ 15*00 52°45 Tamara² 15*00 52°15 (and) Isca, where is located Legio II Augusta³ 17*30 52°45."
VXELIS (Launceston, Cornwall); the previous entry Voliba remains unidentified.
The name Tamaris is mentioned in the Ravenna Cosmology (R&C#5) of the seventh century, where it is listed between the entries for NEMETOSTATIO (Nanstallon, Cornwall) and DVRNOVARIA (Dorchester, Dorset). The river-name Tamar is ancient Celtic, possibly meaning 'the dark one' or simply 'the river'. There are several other British rivers whose names have the same root-meaning; the Thames (Latin Tamesis) in London, the Team in County Durham, the Thame in Buckingham/Oxfordshire, and finally the Tame, of which there are three, in Warwickshire/Staffordshire, Yorkshire/Cheshire and North Yorkshire.
See: Historical Map and Guide - Roman Britain by the Ordnance Survey (3rd, 4th & 5th eds., 1956, 1994 & 2001); Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names by A.D. Mills (Oxford 1998).
Figures show another significant rise in the number of patients waiting more than nine months for hospital care.
More than 13,000 in Wales had been waiting over 36 weeks in August, a rise of more than 2,000 in one month.
Welsh Conservatives say First Minister Carwyn Jones should intervene personally in "an escalating crisis".
Health Minister Mark Drakeford said the NHS in Wales had the same challenge as England but "where we differ is the way we respond and deal with these issues".
The Welsh government has previously blamed the severe winter weather for pushing up the 36-week waiting time.
Its own target is for no-one to wait that long.
The Welsh Conservatives said they recognised the Welsh government had announced extra cash for the NHS in its draft budget announcement this week but waiting times remained "unacceptably long".
According to the Welsh government nobody should be waiting over 36 weeks for hospital treatment after being referred by their GPs
But since March there's been a steep rise in numbers of patients that have waited longer.
In August 13,147 patients across Wales had waited longer than nine months, which is 3.1% of all patients waiting
And the statistics show the problems are most acute in three health board areas.
Cardiff and Vale had 4.8% of patients waiting longer than 36 weeks, Cwm Taf 4.7% and Betsi Cadwaladr 4.3%.
But don't forget there's another target - 95% of patients should be treated within 26 weeks.
Only 88% of patients across Wales had been treated within that time.
Opposition parties argue that along with missed targets on cancer treatment times, A&E waits, and ambulance response times, it all suggests the Welsh government's is losing its grip on NHS performance,
The result, they argue, is patients having to suffer for longer.
Shadow health minister Darren Millar has written to Mr Jones saying the situation was "a crisis that needs immediate priority".
He said: "I hope you will agree that patients across Wales - particularly the elderly and vulnerable - should not be faced with such long waits."
He added that he sought assurances the NHS delays would dealt with by Mr Jones personally.
Meanwhile, Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said the figures were a "national disgrace".
"Why must patients in Wales have to put up with such an inferior service when compared to the rest of the UK?" she said.
"Years of Welsh Labour incompetence has led to thousands of people having to wait an awful long time until the start of their treatment.
"No one should have to wait this long, but it's particularly dreadful to think of the large amount of elderly people that are being forced to wait months on end."
On Tuesday, it was announced that the Welsh NHS would be given £570m of extra funding over three years during the Welsh government's draft budget.
Finance Minister Jane Hutt said the extra money would help the NHS in Wales to avoid a scandal such as the one in Stafford Hospital, where hundreds of patients died as a result of neglect and abuse.
Health Minster Mark Drakeford said: "We know there are significant challenges in the NHS. These are exactly the same challenges being faced by the NHS in England.
"Where we differ is the way we respond to and deal with these issues.
"As a result of our action, 92% of people in Wales are satisfied with the care they receive from the NHS."
About 100 mares are due to be injected with the drug on Dartmoor in April
The aim is to reduce the slaughter of hundreds of unwanted foals each year
