A look back at 2024: a year of turbulence, riots - but also of fun

HERALD REPORTER CARL EVE RECALLS MANY OF THE STORIES HE COVERED FOR US LAST YEAR...

EVERY year is a busy year for a Plymouth reporter and this year has been no exception. While also being the crime and court reporter for The Herald and its sister website, PlymouthLive - I've been tackling other issues in the city, from the serious to the not-so-serious.

Over the past 365 days I've set out to try and capture some flavour of the city in words, but also in pictures, because as the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words.

Picture-wise, the year began with a spread of shots from the Reclaim the Night march through the city, the first in years, which saw staff from Trevi and supporters walk the streets to highlight growing concerns about violence against women and girls.

A few weeks later Plymouth became the focus of the entire country when hundreds and hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes following the discovery of an unexploded World War Two bomb, courtesy of the Luftwaffe.

A policing operation in the city centre to target shoplifting raised the issue of shopworkers - particularly woman who felt unsafe at work.

Around the same time neighbourhood officers in the north of the city were targeting pubs and motorists to clamp down on drug use, with the help of a friendly sniffer dog.

Scenes of incidents is part and parcel of being a crime reporter and so on one weekend I was covering the tragic death of a mother and daughter in St Budeaux, including the picture of the car which struck them. A few days later I was up all night covering the local elections which saw Labour take full control of the city.