Thursday 26th March

Thursday, 26 March 2026 05:00

By Steve Haigh

Somerset Council is offering food vouchers during the school easter holidays to families whose children receive free school meals. A local man has been charged in connection with an incident involving a firearm in Yeovil. The Environment Agency says it could take up to 10 years to protect homes at Holway House Park and Home Farm Park in Ilminster from flooding...and more.

Somerset Council and Citizens Advice are offering support to families worried about the cost of food during the Easter holidays. Families whose children receive free school meals can now apply for supermarket vouchers through the Somerset Citizens Advice website. It comes after Somerset Council ended a scheme giving all free school meal families vouchers every school holiday.

A local man has been charged in connection with an incident involving a firearm in Yeovil. William Martin, aged 38, is facing one count of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and a second count of possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. He was arrested after officers were called to Rosebery Avenue at around 2 pm on Monday following reports that a member of the public was carrying a suspected handgun. Officers said that while attempting to engage with a man in Monmouth Road, a short while later, a firearm was discharged by an officer. There were no injuries reported.

Protecting homes from further flooding at Holway House Park and Home Farm Park in Ilminster could take up to 10 years, according to the Environment Agency. Park homes on the sites off Station Road were flooded in October 2021. Repairs were carried out to a bund on Home Farm Way, which has proved successful in keeping floodwater away. But the Environment Agency says any further improvements may take up to 10 years due to the extensive modelling required to carry out the work and the need to secure government funding.

Somerset Council says one hundred new homes being built in Huish Episcopi will be affordable. The council has approved the plans, submitted by the housing association Abri, to build the properties off Somerton Road.

Blacklands Lane in Tatworth will be closed to traffic for one day next month. It’s to allow Openreach to carry out cabling works. The closure will be in effect from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm on Wednesday, 1st April.

More from News

Wednesday 22nd April

Expectant mothers are using Yeovil Hospital once again to give birth following the reopening of the maternity unit. A Yeovil man has been jailed for four years for committing sexual offences against two young girls. Plans have been approved to convert a pub in Milborne Port into housing... and more
Tuesday 21st April

NHS Somerset has delayed closing the hyper-acute stroke unit at Yeovil Hospital. A former Avon and Somerset Police officer has been jailed for making indecent images of children. A Somerset man has been fined after pleading guilty to hunting a wild animal with dogs... and more
Monday 20th April

Nearly one hundred roads in Somerset will be surface dressed this summer to prevent further damage. Almost all children starting primary school in Somerset in September have been offered a place at one of their top three school choices. People in Somerset are being asked to record wild mammals in gardens and other green spaces over the summer... and more
Friday 17th April

Yeovil MP Adam Dance has backed calls for a cap on heating oil prices. Invitations are being sent out to those in Somerset eligible for the latest Covid vaccine. A pub near Chard has closed just four months after reopening... and more
Thursday 16th April

Wessex Water has been told to pay £300,000 after a sewer spilled into the River Yeo killing dozens of fish. The Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton has been given a grant of half a million pounds. Today marks the official opening of the new visitor centre at Ham Hill... and more
Wednesday 15th April

Yeovil College has been upgraded to a Defence Technical Excellence College. Somerset Council is taking legal action against a housing developer that owes £35,000 in contributions towards local services in Broadway. An Ilminster couple have covered the first 400 miles of their epic walk around the coastline of mainland Britain... and more
Tuesday 14th April

Avon and Somerset Police has launched a new five-year plan to tackle anti-social behaviour. Additional GP appointments will soon be available at three local surgeries, following a £1 million investment to upgrade NHS facilities in Somerset. A Stoke-sub-Hamdon couple whose daughter died of cancer have raised £128,000 in her memory... and more
Monday 13th April

Yeovil MP Adam Dance is calling for better support for survivors of domestic abuse living in rural communities. The RSPB in Somerset is urging people to stop feeding birds to prevent the spread of disease. Yeovil Town Football Club says an issue that had threatened it with removal from the register at Companies House has been resolved... and more