Tuesday 16th July

Tuesday, 16 July 2024 06:00

By Steve Haigh

Members of Yeovil Town Council meet tonight to vote on taking over a host of local services that Somerset Council says it can no longer afford to provide. Yeovil’s e-scooter trial is being temporarily halted. A new cafe is soon to open for people who worked at the Morlands sheepskin factory in Glastonbury to share memories...and more.

Members of Yeovil Town Council meet tonight to vote on taking over a host of local services that Somerset Council says it can no longer afford to provide. If agreed, the Town Council will assume the management, staffing and funding responsibilities for Yeovil Recreation Centre and Café, Yeovil Country Park and Nine Springs Café, Westlands Entertainment Venue and South Somerset Heritage Collection. Meanwhile, Somerset Council is writing to the new Labour government asking for the financial problems in local government to be given priority. Council Leader, Bill Revans says the Lib Dem-controlled authority is selling assets and carrying out a staffing restructure to help cut costs. But Councillor Revans says what’s also needed is for the new government to formulate a new business model for local government, to protect vital services like adult social care and children’s services.

Yeovil’s e-scooter trial is being temporarily halted, with immediate effect. Operators, Zipp Mobility, says it’s due to an unexpected supplier issue. E-scooters will be removed in Yeovil while the service is suspended. The trial is not due to end until May 2026.

Shepton Mallet prison has been presented with a Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Award. The jail, which closed in 2013 and now operates as a tourist attraction was given a perfect 5.0 score in 3200 reviews on Tripadvisor.

A new cafe will launch later this year for people who worked at the Morlands sheepskin factory in Glastonbury to share memories. The café at the Redbrick building in Glastonbury will be held next to where the Morlands factory once operated.

Four owlets have been named in a public vote run by the Somerset Wildlife Trust. They were born in an owl nesting box on the Blackdown Hills.

More from News

Wednesday 18th March

The murder of a two-week-old baby by his father at Yeovil Hospital could not have been predicted, according to a new report. A road in Ilminster is to close to traffic for eleven days later this month. A new Post Office counter is to open in Somerton... and more
Tuesday 17th March

The government is being asked to help fund Somerset's carnivals. Bridgwater Town Council wants more trains to stop at the town’s railway station. A fund raising pie throwing event is taking place for Red Nose Day in Chard... and more
Monday 16th March

Drivers are being told that it could take several more weeks yet before Hendford Hill in Yeovil reopens to traffic. A new bus service between Glastonbury and Castle Cary railway station is to start on a trial basis. Children in Chard are being given free reading books as part of a scheme founded by Dolly Parton... and more
Friday 13th March

The first of the new medium lift helicopters being built by Leonardo in Yeovil for the RAF will be delivered in 2031. Somerset Council has launched a public consultation on planned new charges at its two hundred public car parks. More women in Somerset are said to be taking up walking football... and more
Thursday 12th March

A Yeovil headteacher says he’s concerned about plans to stop giving school holiday food vouchers to families on low incomes. The owner of Yeovil Town is calling on fans to be patient as he continues his overhaul of the National League side. A high voltage fault is being blamed for plunging 1700 homes into darkness in the Ilminster area... and more
Wednesday 11th March

Plans have been submitted to convert two properties in Yeovil into houses of multiple occupation. A new court date has been announced for a Yeovil man charged with attempted murder. An engineer who has worked at the Leonardo factory in Yeovil for 40-years has won a top industry award... and more
Tuesday 10th March

Police say a fire at the former Oscar Mayer food factory in Chard was started deliberately. Yeovil College says it would have been adversely affected had Leonardo not won the contract to build new medium-lift helicopters. A seven-foot dragon will be visiting towns and villages in our area during the next few weeks to promote Somerset Day... and more
Monday 9th March

Two Wildcat helicopters from 815 Squadron at RNAS Yeovilton have arrived in Cyprus to help protect RAF Akrotiri from further Iranian drone strikes. New figures show that 40 people were killed on Avon and Somerset’s roads in the last 12-months. A Somerset man has been recalling the day 60-years ago when he was a passenger on the last train on the Somerset and Dorset Railway... and more