Work has started building a new Breast Cancer Unit at Yeovil Hospital. One of the first summer music festivals takes place near Ilminster this weekend. Work is underway this week removing dozens of diseased and dead trees in Crewkerne. An appeal’s been launched to raise £20,000 to open a village shop in Hatch Beauchamp...and more.
Work has started at Yeovil Hospital building a new Breast Cancer Unit. The unit is being built as an extension to the main hospital and follows a successful appeal to raise two-and-a-half million pounds to pay for it. Head of Charity at Yeovil Hospital, James Kirton, says the appeal attracted huge local support, for which they are most grateful.
Work is underway this week removing diseased and dead trees in Crewkerne. It’s being carried out by the Town Council and follows checks that found dozens of trees at Bincombe Beeches Nature Reserve and elsewhere around the town infected with Ash Dieback disease.
One of the first of this summer’s big music festivals takes place near Ilminster this weekend. The Shindig Festival, with more than twenty bands and individual acts performing live, including headliners Sister Sledge, is being held on the Dillington Estate, starting this Friday through to Bank Holiday Monday.
An appeal’s been launched to raise £20,000 to open a village shop in Hatch Beauchamp. Locals are being offered community shares in the business as a way of raising the money. Andy Grant is leading the project. He says the shop will sell a range of products and also have a café, which is much needed in the village.
A Somerset farmer is nearing the end of walking for charity the six-hundred-and-thirty mile route of the South West Coastal Path. Mark Pope is raising money for two charities, the MND Association and St Margaret's Hospital.
Somerset’s gritters are on standby as temperatures fall below freezing in parts of the county. A major restoration project at Montacute House near Yeovil is nearing completion. Two pubs in our area have been named among the UK's top 100 in the latest Good Food Guide rankings... and more
Two-thirds of police officers at Avon and Somerset Police say they're often too fatigued to carry out their duties. A local councillor is calling for more female-only accommodation to be provided to help end rough sleeping. Somerset’s motorway service stations have been ranked among some of the worst in the country... and more
Somerset’s housing target could be cut by almost 15,000 homes. More than half a million pounds in Arts Council funding to Taunton’s Brewhouse Theatre has been handed back. People in Somerset with type 2 diabetes are being invited to join a new research study... and more
Facial recognition cameras are to be used by police in Somerset for the first time. Badger culling against bovine TB has officially ended in Somerset. The 5-star Summer Lodge Hotel in Evershot has a new owner...and more
Up to 70 jobs could go at the Leonardo helicopter factory in Yeovil. Police are investigating a fire at the former Pittard factory in Yeovil. Families on low incomes are being offered tickets at just £3 to this year’s Yeovil pantomime...and more
South West Water says reservoir levels in Somerset are starting to recover after recent heavy rainfall. Castle Cary railway station is to get a new footbridge. A young dancer from Martock has been chosen to perform with the English Youth Ballet... and more
People in Somerset will go to the polls in May 2028 to elect a new mayor for the Wessex region. A Somerset farmer who failed a breath test after being caught asleep at the wheel of his tractor has narrowly avoided losing his driving licence. The new Ham Hill Visitor Centre has been named a regional winner in the Building Excellence Awards 2026... and more
Somerset Council says it doesn’t have the money to improve its planning enforcement team. Drivers are being advised that work to replace the central barrier on the M5 near Wellington starts this week. A health food shop in Chard has been crowned High Street Shop of the Year... and more