Bus services around Yeovil and across Somerset are set to benefit after the government confirmed that £130 million is to be invested in the bus network across the country. Uncertainty surrounds the future of Cineworld on the Yeo Leisure Park, off Station Road in Yeovil. Repairs to the A30 at Sherborne have entered the third week after further damage was found to a gas pipe. Police are investigating a fatal crash that happened on the A303 near Wincanton...and more.
Local News Monday 22nd August
Bus services around Yeovil and across Somerset are set to benefit after the government confirmed that £130 million is to be invested in the bus network across the country. The funding represents a six-month extension of the bus recovery grant and should secure services at their current level until March next year.
Uncertainty surrounds the future of Cineworld on the Yeo Leisure Park, off Station Road in Yeovil. This is after reports that owners of the Cineworld Group, are preparing to file for bankruptcy. The company is understood to have hired consultants to advise on the bankruptcy process. In a statement, Cineworld said low admission levels at their cinemas have had a negative impact on the group’s liquidity position.
Repairs to the A30 at Sherborne have entered the third week after further damage was found to a gas pipe. The road has been closed between Marston Road and Bristol Road since Thursday, August 11, following an accident in which a combine harvester collided with a gas main. The A30 is not expected to re-open to traffic as normal until Wednesday this week at the earliest.
Police are investigating a fatal crash that happened on the A303 near Wincanton. A car and a van collided on the road last Thursday evening. The driver of the car, a woman in her 20’s, died at the scene. The driver of the van was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
A Fleet Air Arm war veteran has been treated to a special flyover of the plane that he used to pilot. Ralph Jameson, who’s 98, relived memories as the Navy Wings Seafire was flown over his residential care home in Leigh near Sherborne as a thank you for his long service. Mr Jameson flew Barracudas and Fireflies with the British Pacific Fleet during the Second World War and continued to fly with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve after the war. The flyover was staged by Navy Wings, who are based at RNAS Yeovilton.
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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