Local News Monday 17th April

Monday, 17 April 2023 06:00

By Steve Haigh

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.

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