Leonardo helicopters in Yeovil has announced a new £360 million contract to deliver support to the UK’s fleet of Navy and Army Wildcat helicopters. Somerset has failed to secure millions of pounds of investment for local bus services. Plans have been submitted to convert a former restaurant in Yeovil into flats. Higher prices are on the way at your local chippy and Glastonbury has been named the best music festival in the UK and the second-best in the world.
Leonardo helicopters in Yeovil has announced a new £360 million contract to deliver support to the UK’s fleet of Navy and Army Wildcat helicopters. The order has secured 340 industry jobs for the next five years and boosted the Yeovil factory. Meanwhile, Leonardo says it’s still awaiting a decision on the contract to supply its AW 149 as a new medium-lift helicopter to the British military. Managing Director of Leonardo in Yeovil Nick Whitney says it’s an order they have to win.
Somerset has failed to secure millions of pounds of investment for local bus services. The County Council’s been told that it will get £11 million of the £163 million that it had asked for. The government says the money will make buses run more frequently and make fares more affordable.
Plans have been submitted to convert a former restaurant in Yeovil into flats. If the application is approved by South Somerset District Council the first and second floors above the former Amrit Indian restaurant on the corner of South Western Terrace and Middle Street would be turned into five flats.
Higher prices are on the way at your local chippy. With the price of potatoes, fish and energy all going up, a bag of fish and chips is costing more. The manager of Whites fish and chip shop in Chard, Estella Neal, says it getting harder to make a profit out of selling fish and chips.
Glastonbury has been named the best music festival in the UK and the second-best in the world. The online gaming site, Slingo, analysed fifty festivals and put Glastonbury well ahead of the Parklife, Boomtown, and Reading festivals both in terms of performers and location.
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.
Friday 17th May
Thursday 16th May
Wednesday 15th May
Tuesday 14th May
Monday 13th May
Friday 10th May
Thursday 9th May
Wednesday 8th May
