Jamie seeks trainee chefs for Fifteen Cornwall - The Pasty sells saffron cakes from Cornwall and Cornish pasties

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has begun his search for a second batch of young trainee chefs for his restaurant at Watergate Bay, near Newquay.

The search is on for up to 30 student chefs, including reserves, to be trained at Cornwall College in January and start in the kitchen in May 2007. 21 students have already been trained by chefs at Fifteen Cornwall.

Jamie’s Fifteen restaurant in Cornwall is the third of its kind, following the restaurants in London and Amsterdam. The profit made from the restaurants pays for the development and training of disadvantaged youngsters, and helps them build careers in the restaurant industry.

Jamie’s fourth Fifteen restaurant is due to open in Melbourne soon.

70 of Cornwall’s beaches will face major makeovers as volunteers opt to clean them up this weekend

The clean-up includes the large beaches at Fistral in Newquay and Gyllyngvase in Falmouth, and smaller ones at Readymoney and Gunwalloe.

The volunteers include surfers, Brownies and animal sanctuary staff. Members of Surfers against Sewage, who are taking part in the clean-up, hope to remove dangerous litter and debris which could disrupt surfing.

Staff from the National Seal Sanctuary want to clear up Gwithian beach as they frequently release seal pups there. Local councils are providing protective gloves and bin bags for volunteers.

The big beach clean-up is taking place as part of a national campaign called Beachwatch 2006, run by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS). A total of 370 beaches across the United Kingdom are to be cleaned and surveyed by volunteers.

An MCS spokesman said: “Beach litter is more than just an eyesore for millions of beach visitors across the country. It is a global issue that represents a major threat to many vulnerable marine animals.

“MCS surveys have recorded a 90 per cent increase in the amount of beach litter over the last decade, with major sources being visitors, fishing debris, sanitary and shipping waste.

”We’re determined to make Beachwatch 2006 the biggest and most successful ever.”

Stormy gales, cramped conditions and sleep deprivation could not stop staff sergeant Ben Fouracre and three Commando comrades from rowing across the North Atlantic Ocean to help raise over £145,000 for meningitis research and treatment.

Arriving in Cornwall last Sunday, the four rowers travelled from New York to Falmouth, 3,118 miles in 84 days, 23 hours and 59 minutes, achieving the longest point-to-point crossing of the ocean by rowboat.

Fouracre said: “It’s dangerous what we did. We lost communications after four weeks. It’s quite a lonely experience - being 1,500 miles from any land mass is daunting.”

Asked if he would do it again, the husband and father of two said it would not be fair to put his family through it all again.

When they arrived home they were greeted with pasties, bacon rolls and chocolate after surviving for months on boil-in-the-bag food.

The crew hopes to raise up to £250,000 for meningitis research and treatment when all the pledges are in. Anybody who wishes to donate money can visit the team’s website.

The National Trust is undertaking a £20,000 project to remove Japanese Knotweed, an invasive plant species which can grow through concrete, from a 7-mile area in west Cornwall.

The trust hopes to solve the problem by poisoning many of the plants, which have invaded the Tregeseal River and tributary streams that run through the Kenidjack Valley, individually by injections.

The weeds, which can grow up to 3 metres tall, cover a combined area the size of a nature reserve (250 hectares) and have to be removed as they pose a serious threat to wildlife.

Simon Ford, nature conservation adviser for the National Trust, says the weed had spread at “an alarming rate” and “without significant work, many areas we value will be lost under a ’sea’ of stems.”

He added: “Managing knotweed on a catchment scale as the trust is proposing to do in west Penwith is the most effective way of protecting and enhancing the site and its wildlife.”

The plant was introduced to the UK from Japan during Victorian times. It started to spread in the wild after starting to overtake gardens.

The weed is so invasive that planting or dumping it can lead to two years in prison or a large fine.

The Cornwall Wildlife Trust has launched free mammal identification packs to help identify mammals and the tracks and signs they leave behind.

In Cornwall, there are 24 species of terrestrial mammal, but, as many of them are nocturnal or secretive we aren’t aware of their presence.

The packs, including small mammals, carnivores, deer, bats, rabbits and hares, moles and hedgehogs, squirrels and marine mammals, have been launched to raise awareness to the fact that both mammals and their habitats are threatened and need protection.

Alex Howie, Mammal Project Co-ordinator, says, “Over the last three years the Environmental Records Centre for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (ERCCIS) has been running a Mammal Project ‘Celebrating Cornwall’s Mammals -from dormice to dolphins’. The aim of the project is to raise awareness of mammals in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and encourage people to tell us what mammals they have seen, where and when. We have had a fantastic response so far, but need to know more.

“We have now reached the final year of the project and in this last year we are encouraging people to contact us to tell us what they have seen. Whatever it is – dead or alive, common or rare, we would like to know about it.”

To order your pack, call: 01872 273939. For further information, visit www.erccis.co.uk/mammals.

Records of mammals can be sent to ERCCIS, c/o Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Five Acres, Allet, Cornwall, TR4 9DJ or they can be entered online at www.erccis.co.uk/record.htm.

A Cornish charity is helping Lebanese reugees returning home after the recent ceasefire.

ShelterBox, who are based in Helston, has sent three consignments of aid to the region, which has been devestated by the war between Israel and Hizbollah.

Many Lebanese homes were destroyed during the fighting, which has mostly stopped since Monday’s ceasefire, and ShelterBox have sent tents, blankets and other emergency supplies to Lebanese capital Beirut, to be sent to the worst hit regions of southern Lebanon.

For more information visit www.shelterbox.org or call 01326 569782.