Monday 17th February

Monday, 17 February 2025 06:00

By Steve Haigh

Somerset Council Leader, Councillor Bill Revans, has been defending putting up council tax by seven-and-a-half percent. Two men have been jailed for life for the murder of a man in Yeovil. Somerset’s new Local Plan won’t be completed until spring 2029. Work is about to start building a new visitor centre at Ham Hill Country Park...and more

Somerset Council Leader, Councillor Bill Revans, has been defending putting up council tax by seven-and-a-half percent. The government has given Somerset Council permission to break the five-percent cap on increasing council tax to help it avoid bankruptcy. Councillor Revans says despite the seven-and-a-half percent increase, Somerset’s council tax will still be below the national average. Meanwhile, the Leader of the Conservative opposition group on Somerset Council, Councillor Mandy Chilcott says more clarity is needed on the impact of cutting 550 staff jobs at Somerset Council.

Two men have been jailed for life for killing a man in Yeovil. Appearing at Bristol Crown Court for sentencing, Mark Sothcott, aged 56, of Stiby Road and Martin Carty, aged 56, of Raglan Terrace, were each given life sentences for the murder of Frank Ingram, aged 68, at a flat in Raglan Terrace in Yeovil in June last year.

Somerset’s new Local Plan won’t be completed until the spring of 2029, one year later than originally intended. A Local Plan allocates sites for new housing, employment growth, protected green spaces and necessary amenities, such as new schools and doctors’ surgeries. The council said in 2023 that the new Local Plan for Somerset would be in place by March 2028 but now says that won’t happen until March the following year.

Work is about to start building a new visitor centre at Ham Hill Country Park, on the outskirts of Yeovil. The project has been funded through the National Lottery, as well as Leonardo and the Clarks Foundation.

Drainage works in Chard have moved from Victoria Avenue to Furnham Road. There have been delays to traffic on roads in the town since December when Wessex Water and Wales and West Utilities began work upgrading the sewage systems. The stretch of Furnham Road to Victoria Avenue will stay closed until the end of May.

Somerset Council is to stop maintaining the floodgates between Muchelney and Langport on the Somerset Levels that are in place to stop people driving on the road when it's underwater. The Council says the floodgates are not being respected and are continually being vandalised.

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