A move to permanently close the road through Chinnock Hollow near Yeovil has been thrown out. Further work is to be carried out to strengthen flood defences around Chard Reservoir. Somerset Council is buying thirty properties to provide safe homes for refugees....and more.
A move by Somerset Council to permanently close the road through Chinnock Hollow near Yeovil has been voted down. The route, connecting the A30 in East Chinnock with Odcombe, was closed three years ago following a landslide. The decision to oppose the closure has put pressure on Somerset Council, who are seeking to make cuts of £100 million, to find the money to get Chinnock Hollow re-opened.
Somerset Council is buying 30 properties to provide safe homes for refugees. The homes are being bought with money from the government's local authority housing fund, allowing councils to purchase accommodation for refugees coming to the UK. The council says the homes will be in urban areas to ensure refugees can easily access local services but has not confirmed where in Somerset the homes will be.
More than 1,000 people in Somerset have now completed training to become Orange Button holders. It means they've had training in suicide prevention and mental health and are able to offer support to those in need.
Further work is to be carried out to strengthen flood defences around Chard Reservoir. It will involve installing an additional structure along Chaffcombe Lane, with the work due to start in the late summer. Somerset Council had originally allocated £99,000 for the improvements but due to their precarious finances, only £21,000 will now be spent.
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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