A senior council employee at South Somerset District Council has been dismissed. Police have described as ‘extremely dangerous’ an incident at Sherborne railway station. Cash grants are being offered to shop owners in Chard to improve the look of their premises. Plans have been turned down to build forty-eight new homes on land off Fore Street, Tatworth near Chard...and more.
A senior council employee at South Somerset District Council has been dismissed for allegedly using council staff to carry out work at a wine-growing business that she owned. An independent investigation said council workers had built glamping pods, laid turf, and removed a dead pig from the vineyard in North Dorset that Clare Pestell ran alongside her full-time job at the district council.
Police have described as ‘extremely dangerous’ an incident at Sherborne railway station in which young people were caught playing around the train tracks. Police were called after the youngsters were spotted playing with supermarket trolleys on the platform and around the level crossing. Police say the station was operational at the time and that it was fortunate no one was hurt.
Cash grants are being offered to shop owners in Chard to improve the look of their premises. South Somerset District Council says business owners can claim up to 70 percent of the cost of repairing and putting up new signage on shop fronts. The scheme is part of efforts to regenerate Chard town centre and attract more shoppers to the town.
The wife of a Royal Marine in Somerset has been speaking about how the Forces Employment Charity R-F-E-A, helped her get back into the workplace. Jenny Monaghan says it can be difficult for military partners to have careers when they are re-stationed every 2-years and is grateful for the help that she was given in finding employment.
Plans have been turned down to build forty-eight new homes on land off Fore Street, Tatworth near Chard. Members of South Somerset District Council’s Area West Committee rejected the application on the grounds the houses represented ‘over-development’ and would have impacted adversely on the local environment.
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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