Local News Monday 17th April

    Plans to build a new police station in Yeovil have been scrapped. Somerset Council has apologised for sending out thousands of pension credit letters to the wrong addresses. The green light has been given to build a huge solar farm at South Perrott. Cider makers in Somerset are staging events this week to mark British Cider Week...and more.

    Plans to build a new police station in Yeovil have been scrapped after more than five years of waiting. The existing station on Horsey Lane was due to be demolished and replaced with a new two-storey building, but Avon and Somerset Police say the scheme has been cancelled due to escalating costs. A decision to refurbish the existing building instead is expected to be announced shortly.

    Somerset had the highest number of people diagnosed with diabetes in the South West last year, according to Diabetes UK. The charity says that thirty-seven thousand people in Somerset were told they had the condition in 2022. 

    Somerset Council has apologised for sending out thousands of pension credit letters to the wrong households. The Council says a glitch in its computer system led to eleven thousand letters being sent to the wrong addresses. A revised and corrected letter has been prepared and is now being sent to eligible residents.

    The green light has been given to plans to build a huge solar farm that partly crosses into Dorset from South Somerset. The scheme had already approved a fifty-four-hectare site near South Perrott and now Dorset Council has also given its approval. The solar farm will be built close to Pipplepen Farm on School Hill in South Perrott. Developers, Elgin Energy claim it will generate enough power for around 10,000 homes.

    It’s been confirmed that Dillington House near Ilminster is to close as a venue at the end of September. The decision to permanently shut the building was made by Somerset County Council last October after the Council ran up huge losses running it as a venue. Bookings between now and the end of September will go ahead as normal.

    Cider makers in Somerset are staging events this week to mark British Cider Week. UK cider is said to account for thirty-nine per cent of all worldwide sales of cider.

    More from News

    • Monday 16th June

      The new owner of Yeovil Town says he’s in talks with Somerset Council about buying back Huish Park. Water levels at some of Somerset’s reservoirs are below what they should be for this time of year. A Chard woman has been recognised in the King's Birthday Honours... and more.

    • Friday 13th June

      Police are appealing for witnesses to a road traffic accident near Chard, which left one person with life-threatening injuries. Texas Rocks in Middle Street, Yeovil, has closed temporarily following a significant fire. A Yeovil dental hygienist has been named as a finalist in the Ms Great Britain competition...and more.

    • Thursday 12th June

      Yeovil MP Adam Dance has criticised the Chancellor’s Spending Review for not delivering real change for Yeovil and South Somerset. The CEO of Leonardo UK states that they’re working towards closing the gender pay gap within the company. Yeovil Town is relocating its first-team training camp to Bristol... and more.

    • Wednesday 11th June

      People in Somerset are being asked for their views on the state of the county’s roads and footpaths. A trial is being conducted at Yeovil Hospital to investigate whether administering shorter courses of antibiotics to patients can effectively treat sepsis. Somerset Council says it has no plans to reopen a block of public toilets in Chard...and more.

    • Tuesday 10th June

      A mother from Chard says schools need to do more to identify students with dyslexia. A fire in a van that caught alight at Stoke-sub-Hamdon is being treated as accidental. A former Yeovil-based police officer, who made it appear he was working when he wasn’t, has been barred from policing...and more

    • Monday 9th June

      Somerset Council is giving £1.5m to Hill View Special School at Ash near Martock to prevent it from closing. Two men have been convicted of killing a Yeovil man they mistakenly believed to be a convicted paedophile. People across Somerset are being asked to make a note of any wildlife they see...and more

    • Friday 6th June 

      Community Speedwatch volunteers in Keinton Mandeville have stopped monitoring the local traffic because of online and verbal abuse. Redstart Primary School in Chard has been rated as ‘Good’ by Ofsted. A care home resident in Glastonbury has raised more than one thousand pounds for Children's Hospice Southwest by knitting soft toys...and more.

    • Thursday 5th June

      Yeovil MP Adam Dance says he’s been told the temporary closure of the maternity unit at Yeovil Hospital will not be made permanent. Firefighters have dealt with a fire on a coach carrying passengers at Vagg Hill in Yeovil. The authorities in Chile are holding a man who lives in Milborne Port after being found with class-A drugs in a suitcase...and more.

    Today's Weather

    • Yeovil

      Sunny intervals

      High: 22°C | Low: 10°C

    • Chard

      Sunny intervals

      High: 20°C | Low: 10°C

    • Crewkerne

      Sunny intervals

      High: 20°C | Low: 10°C

    • Somerton

      Sunny intervals

      High: 22°C | Low: 11°C

    • Wincanton

      Sunny intervals

      High: 23°C | Low: 10°C

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