Events are being provisionally planned for this year in Dawlish – amid the continuing uncertainty over how much longer the Covid-19 restrictions will be in place.

The town council's Events Committee met on Tuesday, January 19 to discuss the 2021 programme, mainly focusing on The Lawn.

Dawlish's Events, Projects and Tourism Officer, Angie Weatherhead, listed the dates currently in the diary, with the proviso: "It's very difficult to know when during the year social distancing might be relaxed, and I think that's a key factor for a lot of events.

"Although the Lawn is very large, there's a bit of a conundrum, in that you want to attract people to an event, but in fact we don't want to attract them in a certain way."

She said the first event planned to take place on the Lawn is on Easter Saturday, April 3. It's being proposed that, rather than the traditional Easter egg hunt, people could follow a trail around the Lawn to find Easter bunnies. This could be done with social distancing, and the successful participants will have Easter eggs delivered to their homes afterwards.

The May half-term week usually sees a series of events on the Lawn. The proposal this year is to plan some low-key events for the week while assuming that some restrictions will still be in place – the plans can be amended if the rules are relaxed.

The meeting heard that an application is being made to the Ministry of Defence for a grant to help celebrate Armed Forces Day in June, and a giant screen is being hired for the Wimbledon tennis tournament. If there are still restrictions preventing large gatherings on the Lawn, the screen could be placed at Warren Farm.

In July, a Classic Cars event is due to take place at the Lawn, and Carnival Week is from August 14 to August 20. There are also various 'charity days' to be held there during the summer, with charities invited to apply to Teignbridge District Council for permission to have stalls at these events.

During the discussions, it was proposed that the town council should look into providing re-useable glasses at its events, rather than disposable plastic ones. Vanessa Ryley from Dawlish Against Plastic, who was at the meeting, had already looked into this, and councillors agreed that she and Angie Weatherhead could discuss the way forward.

Councillors also discussed this year's Christmas events, and supported the idea of spreading these events over a longer period than usual – as was the case in December, when late night shopping was held each Friday before Christmas. But they also agreed that it was important not to start Christmas celebrations too close to Remembrance Sunday events, or those that might held by the Dawlish Royal British Legion, which has its 100th anniversary in November. They voted to have the Christmas lights switch-on during the weekend of November 26 and 27 this year.

Finally, the councillors began exploring ideas for celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. Suggestions included a big screen for showing footage of the Coronation in 1952, fancy-dress competitions for children and traditional tea parties. Jan Lendon, representing Dawlish WI at the meeting, said her group were very keen to be involved.