Local News Wednesday 8th March

Wednesday, 8 March 2023 06:00

A new hostel for homeless people is set to open in Yeovil. Homeowners in Chard are to be provided with water butts to help reduce the risk of the town flooding. Seven Avon and Somerset Police officers have been dismissed for inappropriate sexual contact since 2018. A Yeovil man, whose father died of prostate cancer, is planning to cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats to raise awareness of getting an early diagnosis for prostate cancer.....and more.

A new hostel for homeless people is set to open in Yeovil but South Somerset District Council, who are funding the project, won’t say where in the town the hostel is located. The new hostel will accommodate ten homeless and rough sleepers and replace the Pathways homeless lodge on Newton Road when it closes at the end of the month. South Somerset District Council is providing two-hundred-and-twenty thousand pounds towards the first year’s costs of nearly three-hundred-and-eighty thousand pounds of running the hostel.

Homeowners in Chard are to be provided with water butts to help reduce the risk of the town flooding. Around one thousand properties on Furnham Road and on the Glynswood estate when damaged when Chard flooded in 2021. Somerset Rivers Authority has allocated funds to buy water butts for homes across the town in the hope that it will reduce surface water.

Seven Avon and Somerset Police officers have been dismissed for inappropriate sexual contact since 2018. Data gathered by the Observer newspaper shows the force had the most incidents of this kind out of the twenty-two police forces in England and Wales who responded to their survey.

Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh has welcomed the government’s decision to provide more support to children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Investment in the SEND programme will rise to more ten billion pounds starting from April. Mr Fysh, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Education, says the extra funds will be used to build new special schools and improve services to children with special needs and disabilities and their families.

A Yeovil man, whose father died of prostate cancer, is planning to cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats this summer in his memory. David Parish’s father Henry died following a late diagnosis. David believes if he’d gone to see his GP sooner, he might still be alive today. David will be joined by two friends, Sheldon Fling and Jonney Reay, raising awareness of prostate cancer and importance of an early diagnosis, along the 900-mile route.

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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.