Wednesday 20th September

Wednesday, 20 September 2023 07:00

By Steve Haigh

We're being asked to think carefully before using NHS services in Somerset this week, due to strikes by doctors. Wilko will shut its Yeovil store at the end of September. Crosscountry Rail, who run trains through Somerset, has been given a new contract with the government...and more.

We're being asked to think carefully before using NHS services in Somerset this week, due to strikes by doctors. Consultants walked out yesterday for forty-eight hours, with junior doctors starting three days of action from today. Junior doctors have been offered a nine percent pay rise, which they have refused.

Crosscountry Rail, which runs trains through Somerset, has been given a new contract with the government. The eight-year contract, starting from next month, comes despite figures showing that Crosscountry had one of the highest numbers of cancellations of all train operators between April and June this year.

It’s been announced that Wilko will shut its Yeovil store at the end of September. The final day of trading at the shop in Lower Middle Street will be Friday, September 29th. All four hundred Wilko outlets across the UK will shut by early October, according to the administrators, Price Waterhouse Cooper. In a separate development, The Range has bought the Wilko brand and website.

A local spider expert is asking people not to kill spiders when they enter our homes but to allow them to breed. Dee Patel, an entomologist based in Somerset, says spiders are good for the environment and that their numbers need to grow.

Ilminster hairdresser, Ben Russell, has made it through to the finals of the Australian Hair and Fashion Awards. Ben’s success at last year’s British Hairdressing Awards gave him automatic entry into the Australian awards where he will compete for the title of Global Hairdresser of the Year.

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.