Rising energy prices and the cost of living are taking their toll on pubs in the Southwest. A pub in Chard that has been vacant for more than a decade is likely to remain unoccupied for longer. A Chard man has been banned from driving for a year after failing a drugs test while in charge of a motor vehicle. Items of equestrian equipment have been stolen from a stable block at Kingsbury Episcope near Langport...and more.
Rising energy prices and the cost of living are taking their toll on pubs in the Southwest. The British Institute of Innkeepers says 400 pubs in the region closed in the last twelve months. They claim only 37 percent of hospitality businesses are currently making a profit. The government says to help the sector, the support it gives to businesses that use a lot of energy has been doubled, and employer national insurance contributions have been cut.
A pub in Chard that has been vacant for more than a decade is likely to remain unoccupied for longer. The Furnham Inn, on Furnham Road, closed in 2013 with no interest shown in buying the building to run as a pub. The owners of the Grade-2 listed property had applied to change its use to residential, but planners at South Somerset District Council turned down the application saying it failed to meet the legal requirements for converting listed buildings.
A Chard man has been banned from driving for a year after failing a drug test while in charge of a motor vehicle. Vincent Collision was caught driving in Crowshute Link in Chard in February when the proportion of cannabis in his blood exceeded the specified limit. Collision of Combe Street in Chard pleaded guilty to the offence and was also fined £450 with costs when he appeared in court in Yeovil.
Items of equestrian equipment have been stolen from a stable block at Kingsbury Episcope near Langport. Police say thieves broke into the site in the early hours of last Saturday. Two show saddles, four dressage saddles, three show jumping saddles and 15 bridles were taken. Officers from the South Somerset Neighbourhood Policing team are investigating.
A Chard man is planning to mark his 92nd birthday by flying 100 meters in the air on a zip wire for charity. Don Raddon will be raising money for the Filo Project which supports people with dementia when he makes the attempt at the Eden Project at the end of August.
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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