Local News 26th July

    Police are investigating the attempted kidnap of a woman in Yeovil. Somerset Council has signed a letter to the Prime Minister asking for e-scooters to be legalised. Court Barton in Ilminster is closed again to traffic today and won’t reopen until Friday. An Ilminster woman has launched a campaign to get more giant sunflowers grown in Somerset...and more.

    Police are investigating the attempted kidnap of a woman in Yeovil. It happened as she was being followed by a silver Skoda SUV along Preston Road at around 9.50 pm on Sunday, July 9. Police say the car pulled up alongside the woman and a man grabbed her arm and tried to pull her into the car. The offender has been described as white, with dark features, in his mid to late 30s and was wearing a black hat. Police would like to speak to a man and woman who were walking a dog in Preston Park off Preston Road at around the time of the incident. If you can help, you’re asked to please call the non-emergency number 101.

    Somerset Council has signed a letter to the Prime Minister asking for e-scooters to be legalised. More than fifty organisations including environmental charities and campaigners claim the UK is the only developed nation not to have permanently legalised e-scooters or committed to do so. 

    Court Barton in Ilminster is closed again to traffic today and won’t reopen until Friday. It’s to allow for Wessex Water to carry out repairs.

    An Ilminster woman wants to see more sunflowers grown in Somerset. Marjorie Edwards started growing the giant blooms in 2021 during Covid to get people out into their gardens. She's launched a grow a sunflower as tall as a house’ initiative in the hope that gardeners will grow more sunflowers.

    Local man Michael Peach is the latest to qualify as an on-call firefighter with the Devon and Somerset Rescue Service. On-call firefighters do the same emergency work as full-time firefighters but can also have other jobs. They carry a pager, which activates when they are needed to attend incidents.

    Jason Inchley of Chard has won best in class at the Riding for the Disabled National Championships. Scoring seventy-seven points riding his thirteen-year-old mare, Rubin Ryella, Jason won the Open Grade Two section outright.

    Yeovil Town beat League Two side Newport County 2-0 in a pre-season friendly at Huish Park last night. Yeovil's goal scorers were Morgan Williams on twenty-one minutes and Jake Hyde in the seventy-third minute.

    More from News

    • Friday 17th May

      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

    • Thursday 16th May

      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.

    • Wednesday 15th May

      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

    • Tuesday 14th May

      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.

    • Monday 13th May

      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.

    • Friday 10th May

      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.

    • Thursday 9th May

      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.

    • Wednesday 8th May

      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.

    Today's Weather

    • Yeovil

      Light rain

      High: 20°C | Low: 10°C

    • Chard

      Heavy rain shower

      High: 19°C | Low: 10°C

    • Crewkerne

      Heavy rain shower

      High: 19°C | Low: 10°C

    • Somerton

      Light rain

      High: 18°C | Low: 10°C

    • Wincanton

      Light rain

      High: 19°C | Low: 10°C

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