Somerset County Council has approved controversial plans to extend a quarry at Blackford near Wincanton. A cat breeder in Curry Rival is warning pet owners to make sure they are not feeding their cats a brand of dry food that has been linked to a fatal bone marrow disease. Police are treating as suspicious, a car fire in Yeovil. A Yeovil motorist, caught speeding on the A303 Ilminster bypass, has been fined £290. Somerset County Council has announced plans to spend £70 million over the next 10-years on children’s social care...and more.
Somerset County Council has approved controversial plans to extend a quarry at Blackford near Wincanton. Local residents had opposed the extension on the grounds of noise and extra lorry traffic. Others to object included Charlton Horethorne Parish Council and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England. The quarry’s owners say that stone from Blackford Quarry will be used to repair some of Britain’s most important historic buildings.
A cat breeder in Curry Rival is warning pet owners to make sure they are not feeding their cats a brand of dry food that has been linked to a fatal bone marrow disease. Lorraine Burns bred a cat that later died after eating a dry food made by Fold Hill on behalf of Sainsbury's and Pets at Home. Fold Hill says although their product was not been confirmed as causing the cat’s death, it has been recalled.
Police are treating as suspicious, a car fire in Yeovil. It happened in Crofton Park in the early hours of Tuesday. The vehicle was completely destroyed.
A Yeovil motorist, caught speeding on the A303 Ilminster by pass, has been fined £290. Appearing before local magistrates, Matthew Ousey of Glastonbury Court in Yeovil also had five penalty points put on his licence.
Somerset County Council has announced plans to spend £70 million over the next 10-years on children’s social care. Care homes for children will be smaller with children given more flexible options combining foster care and therapeutic education.
A road in Chard will close for five weeks from next week. Elizabeth Way will shut to traffic on Monday for resurfacing and an upgrade to a pedestrian crossing. Access to properties and businesses will be maintained and pedestrians and cyclists will be able to continue using the road.
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.