Local News Tuesday 20th June

Tuesday, 20 June 2023 06:00

By Steve Haigh

New technology is being used to help identify people in Somerset at risk of developing liver disease. Tributes are being paid to Somerset racehorse owner, Paul Barber, who has died at the age of 80. Plans have been submitted to convert an office block in Yeovil town centre into a house of multiple occupation...and more.

New technology is being used to help identify people in Somerset at risk of developing liver disease. The project involves analysing people’s historic blood results and, where signs of liver disease are spotted, offering them early treatment.

Tributes are being paid to Somerset racehorse owner, Paul Barber, who has died at the age of 80. His best-known horses, See More Business and Denman, enjoyed big race successes, including winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Paul Barber was also well known as a Somerset cheese maker.

Plans have been submitted to convert an office block in Yeovil town centre into a house of multiple occupation. If approved by Somerset Council, the former Porter Dodson offices on Church Path, next to St John’s Church, would be turned into a fifteen-bed unit.

Funding has been provided to plant a further twenty thousand new trees across Somerset as part of efforts to reduce flooding. The ‘Trees for Water’ project has been given sixty-thousand pounds in funding to plant trees across the county aimed at reducing surface water run-off in targeted areas.

The Big Wildlife Count is taking place in Somerset this week. People are being asked to look out for common species like goldfinch, dragonflies, spiders and butterflies and record their sightings online. The project is being run jointly by the Somerset Wildlife Trust and Somerset Environmental Records Centre.

The Head of the Ferne Animal Sanctuary near Chard is walking a forty-six-mile walk today and tomorrow, raising funds for the charity. On his way over to Chard from the Ferne Estate in Wiltshire, Kevan Hodges will be passing through Henstridge, Milborne Port, West Coker, Haselbury Plucknet, Crewkerne, Roundham, and Cricket St Thomas.

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.