Local News Wednesday 26th May

Wednesday, 26 May 2021 06:00

Hundreds more jobs have been created to help with building the new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. A vehicle has been destroyed by fire in Castle Cary. A fundraising campaign has been started by Yeovil Town to support the family of former club captain Lee Collins, who died in March. Chard School is celebrating its 350th anniversary this week. Engineering work, due to take place on a rail line between Yeovil and Weymouth this weekend has been postponed.

Hundreds more jobs have been created to help with building the new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. The firm running the project, EDF, says it’s taking on another seventeen hundred workers that will bring the total number on the site to seven thousand.

Somerset’s four District Councils have been told to apologise after sending out a link to a spoof website. The offending link, which mocks senior figures at Somerset County Council, was included in the literature supporting the public vote over the future of local government in the county. The Secretary of State for Local Government, Robert Jenrick has called the error a ‘serious failure’ that ‘risks undermining the reputation and standing of local government. The District Councils have yet to make public their reply to Mr. Jenrick after he criticised them for staging the countywide poll, describing it as ‘not needed’ and a waste of public money.

A vehicle has been destroyed by fire in Castle Cary. It happened in the early hours of Tuesday (25-05), in Weir Lane. Fire service says the vehicle was left totally burnt out.

A fundraising campaign has been started by Yeovil Town to support the family of former club captain Lee Collins, who died in March. Yeovil Town are raising funds for Lee's partner and young children and mental health charities, with 10% of the donations given to Young Minds through a collaboration with his former clubs. There will also be a celebration of Lee's life when Yeovil plays Stockport County at Huish Park on Saturday.

Engineering work, due to take place on a rail line between Yeovil and Weymouth this weekend has been postponed due to it being a Bank Holiday and to avoid unnecessary disruption for passengers. GWR says the job of laying new tracks around Chetnole has been moved to later in the year.

Chard School is celebrating its 350th anniversary this week. The school was founded in Chard in 1671 by William Symes who gifted the Manor House Chard for a school. Pupils have been taking part in historic activities and local mayor, Jason Baker, attended a celebratory assembly earlier in the week.

More from News

Friday 17th May

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
Thursday 16th May

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.
Wednesday 15th May

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
Tuesday 14th May

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.
Monday 13th May

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.
Friday 10th May

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.
Thursday 9th May

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.
Wednesday 8th May

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.