Monday 15th December

Monday, 15 December 2025 05:00

By Steve Haigh

Toolstream in Yeovil has been put into administration, threatening the jobs of dozens of employees. NHS Somerset has issued a last chance call for people to get a flu jab after hospital admissions increased by 76% in a week. Police are investigating the theft of a bike valued at £7,000 in Sherborne... and more

Toolstream in Yeovil has been put into administration threatening the jobs of dozens of employees. Its sister company, Group Silverline Ltd, has also been entered into administration. A notice on the Toolstream website says as of December 11th, the affairs, business and property of both companies will be managed by joint administrators, Hywel Phillips and Gavin Park of Teneo Financial Advisory Limited. It’s understood that Toolstream staff were called to a meeting late last week and instructed to remain at home until further notice.

NHS Somerset has issued a last-chance call for people to get a flu jab after hospital admissions increased by 76% in a week. By Sunday, 7th December, the number of people in hospital with flu had risen to an average of 139 per day, up from 79 per day in the week ending Sunday, 30 November. The figures also showed a 93 per cent increase in beds occupied by people with flu, compared with the same week in December last year.

Thirty new jobs could be created with the opening of a new food and drink business in Sherborne. The Loungers Group has applied for a premises licence to run a food-led café restaurant bar at 55 Cheap Street in Sherborne. The building, previously occupied by M&Co, is currently being used by the Original Factory Shop.

Plans have been submitted to build 150 new homes off Broadway Hill at Horton, near Ilminster. The 14-hectare site is currently in agricultural use. Developers, Gleeson Land, say 53 of the homes will be ‘affordable’ and that a nearby playing field will be extended as part of the scheme.

Police are investigating the theft of a bike valued at £7,000 in Sherborne. It was taken from the home of Zoe Tucker, the current holder of the Duathlon World Championships title. Zoe had been using the bike to train for next year’s European Duathlon Championships in May and says it’s a ‘devastating loss’.

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