A new campaign is urging people in Somerset to quit smoking as health experts estimate that around sixty thousand people still smoke cigarettes across the county. An Ilminster man caught driving while disqualified has been jailed for eight weeks. A Somerset couple are preparing to travel to Ukraine to deliver a vehicle for use on the frontline in the war against Russia...and more.
A new campaign's urging people in Somerset to quit smoking as health experts estimate around sixty thousand people still smoke cigarettes across the county. This week marks the 40th anniversary of No Smoking Day and the release of a new TV anti-smoking advert backed by Cancer Research UK.
An Ilminster man caught driving while disqualified has been jailed for eight weeks after breaching a court order. Morgan Freeman, aged 25, of Ile Court, in Ilminster, was appearing at Taunton Magistrates' Court for failing to comply with the requirements of a community order. The court was told that Freeman had failed to attend appointments as directed. Magistrates revoked the community order and sentenced him for the original offence of driving while disqualified.
Somerset Council is selling Petters House on Petters Way in Yeovil. The building was operated as a customer access point by South Somerset District Council before being transferred to the new Somerset Council in April 2023. A new customer access point will be introduced at Yeovil Library.
A fund has reopened to provide fresh support to veterans in Somerset injured during military service. Ex-service personnel can apply to the fund being administered by the charity Help for Heroes to get financial help with specialist equipment.
A Somerset couple are preparing to travel to Ukraine to deliver a vehicle for use on the frontline. Ed Chalmers and Katie Hines will travel the thirteen hundred miles over 3-days to Ukraine on behalf of the charity, Driving Ukraine, which so far has delivered seventy vehicles to the country to use in the war against Russia.
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.