It is hard to choose from the articles and letters in this week’s FREE “View from” publications. Simply Google “View from” and Honiton, Ottery, Seaton, Sidmouth, Axminster, Colyton etc and you will get the full digital edition on your computer.

The editorial from its editor, Philip Evans, is one of the best we have ever read, bemoaning the fact that, once in the dark and distant past, the political colour of district councillors was an almost total irrelevance – all councillors doing their best for the district and the particular towns they served. He points out that now it is simply politically-charged wrangling and insults with more insidious behaviour too – the destruction of public speech and accountability and a sense of some councillors doing the job more for the money than as a public service.

Elsewhere the newspaper reports on issues such as the hospital bed closures in Axminster, the new governance of the Beehive in Honiton and the still-pervasive sewerage issues in Ottery St Mary.

The Letters page is an absolute cracker too – stinging criticism of the reduction in public speaking at planning committees, a riposte from one Axminster councillor to another when Councillor Moulding accused Councillor Heywood of bad conduct on a personal Facebook page where he dared to make comments about the state of play in Axminster at the moment and a condemnation of the new parking extension for the main Seaton car park to serve the new visitor centre which destroys several mature trees on a green space.

If you do not have a copy rush out and get one – it is a beacon of what true local journalism should be – unafraid and unbowed.