Local News Thursday 8th April

Thursday, 8 April 2021 07:30

An inquest has been opened and adjourned into the death of Yeovil Town captain Lee Collins. Taylor Woodrow Plus has won the contract to upgrade the A358 between the Southfields roundabout near Ilminster and M5. The Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Police, Andy Marsh is leaving his post. A Chard man has appeared in court charged with a drink and driving offence....and more.

An inquest has been opened and adjourned into the death of Yeovil Town captain Lee Collins. The hearing was told the footballer was pronounced dead after being found in his room at the Lanes Hotel in West Coker on March 31st. Somerset Senior Coroner, Tony Williams, asked for further reports and adjourned the inquest to July 7th. Meanwhile, £4,000 has been raised through a public appeal to help Lee Collins’s family. The appeal is being run through social media by Yeovil Town Disabled Supporters.

Taylor Woodrow Plus has won the contract to upgrade the A358 between the Southfields roundabout near Ilminster and M5. Highways England will spend £328 million turning a 9-mile stretch of the road into a dual carriageway, together with a reduction in the number of road junctions and private accesses onto the A358.

The Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Police, Andy Marsh is leaving his post. He says it’s the right time to embark on a new challenge, and won't be seeking to extend his contract beyond June. Andy Marsh joined the Avon and Somerset force in 1987 and was appointed Chief Constable in 2016.

A Chard man has appeared in court charged with a drink and driving offence. Lanis Fustei of Samuel Vickery Way in Chard was disqualified from driving for two-and-a-half years and given 80 hours of unpaid work. Magistrates in Yeovil also fined him £346 for driving without the correct insurance. Fustei pleaded guilty to both offences.
At the same court, Daniel Marks of Swanmead Drive, in Ilminster, pleaded guilty to a drink driving charge and was fined £300 and given 80 hours unpaid work.

An extra eight million pounds has been allocated towards supporting care providers in Somerset. The money from the County Council is to help those most affected financially by the pandemic. The Council says around half of the funding will be given to those in greatest need in the form of a Covid supplementary payment.

A fundraising event themed around the story of Homeward Bound is raising money for the Ferne Animal Sanctuary near Chard. The charity is encouraging people to walk, cycle, even to swim the 200 miles distance on which the Homeward Bound story is based

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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

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