Members of Somerset Council have backed a motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. A primary school in Yeovil has come top of a list of best-performing primary schools in Somerset. Great Western Railway says engineering works will affect services through Somerset to London over the Christmas period.
Members of Somerset Council have backed a motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. At a meeting held yesterday, all Labour, Green, Lib Dem, and independent members voted in support of an immediate bilateral ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict, with Conservative members abstaining. The meeting condemned the attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel on October 7th, and called for the hostages held by Hamas to be unconditionally released.
A primary school in Yeovil has come top of a list of best-performing primary schools in Somerset. Preston Primary topped the list with 95 per cent of pupils who sat this year’s SATS exams meeting the expected standards. The Countess Gytha Primary School in West Camel was in second place with a 90 per cent rating. The data, released by the government, is the first performance indicator on primary school performance in Somerset since the start of the Covid outbreak.
Great Western Railway says engineering works will affect services through Somerset to London over the Christmas period. Services through Castle Cary will be restricted, starting from Christmas Eve and up to Wednesday, December 27th.
If you’re planning to open a bottle of fizz this Christmas, be warned. Academics say a flying cork can cause serious injury if it hits someone in the eye. They say the pressure inside a bottle of fizz is three times that inside a car tyre, and can launch a cork travelling at speeds of up to fifty miles per hour. They say if you’re popping a cork, point the bottle at forty-five degrees and cover the top of the bottle with a towel, to minimise the chances of injury.
A new website has been launched to support people in Somerset with mental health issues. One of Yeovil’s oldest pubs has been sold. Artwork on the theme of aviation produced by students at Yeovil College has gone on display at Leonardo Helicopters in Yeovil.A pupil at Tatworth Primary School near Chard has won a prize in a national competition for writing a book review...and more
Work laying a gas main on the A37 Dorchester Road near the Quicksilver Mail roundabout in Yeovil is to continue for a further two months. Somerset Council says the public toilets in Yeovil bus station will close at the end of the month but the waiting room will stay open temporarily. Former Yeovil Town Captain, Josh Staunton, has set up in business as a professional gardener...and more.
Somerset Council seeking to save £40 million by cutting one thousand jobs says 201 employees have so far applied to leave the authority based on voluntary redundancy. East Somerset Railway near Shepton Mallet has been used for filming the TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper's novel Rivals. An old-style red phone box in Castle Cary is being turned into Somerset's smallest museum...and more
Somerset's Chief Medical Officer says GP surgeries using healthcare professionals alongside doctors to provide treatments has freed up GP appointments. A farmer has been fined £15,000 for polluting a household water supply. Avon and Somerset’s new Police and Crime Commissioner has officially started work in the role. Chard Post Office is closed today for the handover of the business to new owners...and more.
Health inspectors have criticised Somerset's maternity services, including those at Yeovil Hospital. Somerset Council says re-opening Yeovil’s Octagon Theatre in its original form could cost up to £200,000 if a multi-million-pound upgrade of the building falls through. A film made by a Yeovil man on a budget of just five thousand pounds was screened at the prestigious British Independent Film Festival...and more.
The Ferne Animal Sanctuary near Chard says it needs an immediate injection of £100,000 to keep going. Yeovil’s Marlie Packer has returned to Yeovil Rugby Club where she began her rugby career 20 years ago. Twenty-five Town criers from across the South will be in Ilminster tomorrow competing in the annual Ilminster Town Criers' Competition...and more.
Train services through Somerset are again being disrupted today due to continued strike action by the train driver’s union ALSEF. A campaign has been launched in Somerset aimed at stopping people overdosing on opioids. A Somerset business is raising a smile with its name.‘Top Of The Clops’, a tack shop near Taunton has won a place in the top ten of the UK’s funniest business names...and more.
A woman driver has been told she faces a prison term for causing the deaths of two people in a crash on the A303. The AA says there are more potholes than ever on Somerset’s motorway network, leading to an increase in damage to vehicles. The new cancer treatment unit at Yeovil Hospital should be open before the end of the year...and more.
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