Thursday 22nd May

Thursday, 22 May 2025 06:00

By Steve Haigh

Residents of Chard are being asked to be more proactive and call the local police when they spot acts of crime and anti-social behaviour. Somerset Council says its gritting teams went out 1700 times last winter, covering more than 117,000 miles and spreading 6,000 tonnes of salt to keep local roads open. Leonardo Helicopters says it will be conducting test flights over Yeovil tonight up until 10.30 pm...and more

Residents of Chard are being asked to be more proactive when they spot acts of crime and anti-social behaviour. Speaking at a meeting of Chard Town Council, Police Community Support Officer Beatrice Gane said the police were not getting the full support of local people in the fight against crime. She said people would post on Facebook about seeing a crime but not tell the police so they could make a proper response. At the same meeting, Town Clerk David Bell said the Council had dealt with a “dramatic increase in littering and drug paraphernalia” in the town in the past year.

A charity supporting people involved in the infected blood scandal, including those in Somerset, says it’s vital that the government speeds up compensating victims. It's been a year since the official report on the infected blood scandal was released, yet only 100 people have been compensated. Hazel Busby, who lives in Street, contracted Hepatitis C in the 1970s after she was given contaminated blood. She says the delay in paying compensation is 'appalling'.

A councillor is calling for more to be done to help keep village life going. Councillor Matt Martin, who represents the King Alfred division on Somerset Council, wants local jobs provided to keep young people living in villages; otherwise, he warns that small communities will die. Speaking at the council’s climate and place scrutiny committee, Councillor Martin said one way to keep young people in the county and attract more young people to Somerset would be to create a ‘University of Somerset’.

Somerset Council says its gritting teams went out 1700 times last winter, covering more than 117,000 miles. 6,000 tonnes of salt were used to prevent ice from forming on local roads. The coldest road surface temperature of the winter in Somerset was minus 5.3 degrees Celsius on January 3rd.

Leonardo Helicopters says it will conduct test flights over Yeovil tonight. The exercise is due to be completed by 10:30 p.m.

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