News

A ban on e-scooters on trains and at stations in South Somerset has come into force. Somerset Council is looking for more volunteers to help young people in the County. A Chard motorist has been fined two-hundred-and-seventy-six pounds after being caught driving at sixty-nine miles per hour in a thirty zone. The Royal Bath and West Show enters its second day today...and more.

Yeovil College has been downgraded to ‘Requiring Improvement’ following an Ofsted inspection. Yeovil Town says season ticket sales are fifty per cent up on this time last year. Police are appealing for witnesses to a road accident in Yeovil in which a man needed hospital treatment for facial injuries. A new skate park in Yew Tree Park in Yeovil has been officially opened...and more.

Police are investigating a break-in at a house in South Petherton in which cash and jewellery were stolen. Somerset Council has defended its policy of not cutting roadside grass verges. Plans have been passed to convert the former Post Office in Somerton into a home. The new CEO of the Royal Bath and West Society says she’s feeling excited and a little nervous ahead of her first Royal Bath and West Show...and more.

Rising costs have been blamed for forcing the cancellation of this year’s Farmfest Music Festival in Bruton. Training at the Underwater Escape Unit at RNAS Yeovilton has been halted due to damage caused by the major flooding event in South Somerset earlier in the month. Householders in Somerset are being reminded that rubbish and recycling collections this week are running a day late because of the Bank Holiday...and more.

Somerset Council is looking to save ten million pounds a year in how it delivers Adult Social Care services. A parade's been held at RNAS Yeovilton to celebrate the latest group of pilots and crew completing their helicopter flight training. Cartons will no longer be accepted at Somerset’s recycling sites from next month. The annual Od Arts Festival held in the villages of East and West Coker opens to the public today...and more.

Bridgwater is expected to be confirmed as the site to build a major new factory, making batteries for electric vehicles. Permission has been granted to convert the former village shop in Bradford Abbas into a home. A local man who set himself the task of climbing Mount Snowden, Scafell Pike, and Ben Nevis for charity, has completed the challenge in just twelve days...and more.

Work has started building a new Breast Cancer Unit at Yeovil Hospital. One of the first summer music festivals takes place near Ilminster this weekend. Work is underway this week removing dozens of diseased and dead trees in Crewkerne. An appeal’s been launched to raise £20,000 to open a village shop in Hatch Beauchamp...and more.

National Highways says it plans to go ahead with dualling the A358 linking the Ilminster bypass with the M5 despite government policy shifting towards cheaper road schemes. Permission has been given to build fifteen new houses in the village of Ilton. A creation by a Yeovil garden designer is on display at this week’s Chelsea Flower Show...and more.

Five thousand people have now signed a petition opposing plans to close the acute stroke ward at Yeovil Hospital. People in Queen Camel have launched a crowdfunding appeal to help repair the damage caused by the major flooding event of two weeks ago. The main A30 through West Coker is to shut for six weeks this summer for resurfacing and new traffic lights...and more.

The Leader of Somerset Council says a five-million pound bill for making twenty-nine senior managers redundant is a good deal for council taxpayers. Great Western Railway has added an extra forty-four trains each week to its timetable. Merriot Primary School has again been rated as ‘Good’ following an Ofsted inspection....and more.

Twenty-nine senior managers at Somerset Council are being made redundant. Ofsted has carried out a re-inspection at Huish Episcopi Academy near Langport. Police are appealing for dash cam footage of a fatal crash on the A303 in South Somerset. We’re being encouraged this month to take part in 'No Mow May'...and more.

Somerset Council has launched an investigation into the cause of last week’s major flooding event in South Somerset. The organisation representing fish and chip shop owners in Somerset says that financially the sector is on its knees due to rising costs and finding a pebble could be your ticket to next month’s Home Farm Music Festival...and more.

The new owner of Yeovil Town, Martin Hellier, says his purchase of the club includes the right to buy back Huish Park and the surrounding land from Somerset Council. A new five million pound operating theatre has opened at Yeovil Hospital. Plans have been submitted to convert the former village shop in East Coker into a house....and more.

It’s believed that as many as sixty homes and business premises were left flooded in South Somerset when one month's rain fell in just three hours last Tuesday night. The charity 'Young Lives Versus Cancer' says its shop on Princes Street in Yeovil is at risk of closure. A new community shop has opened in the village of Chardstock, near Chard...and more.