Thursday 9th May

Thursday, 9 May 2024 06:00

By Steve Haigh

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.

Great Western Railway says it’s unable to run services in Somerset again today due to continued strike action by members of the train driver’s union ALSEF. Meanwhile, South Western Railway says only two morning and two evening services will run through Pen Mill station in Yeovil, as they too have been heavily impacted by ASLEF’s overtime ban.

A campaign has been launched in Somerset aimed at stopping people from overdosing on opioids. Using a new App, users are directed to places where naloxone, a drug used to reverse opioid misuse, is given out free. It’s estimated that around 2,000 people misuse opioids in Somerset and are at risk of overdosing. The campaign features posters displayed at railway and bus stations and in supermarkets across Somerset.

Plans have been submitted to build four new industrial units on Blacknell Lane at the eastern edge of Crewkerne. The application on behalf of Pilsdon Pen Ltd shows the location of the units close to the Wool Gardens housing development, using the road to the town’s household waste recycling centre for entry.

The Ferne Animal Sanctuary near Chard has issued an urgent appeal for donations to help keep it open. The Centre looks after 300 animals and employs 170 staff and volunteers. Over the past two years, their operating costs have risen on average by 40 percent. The charity is now considering selling off a 20-acre plot of farmland along with a three-bedroom cottage to raise some much-needed cash.

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.

The A358 between Chard and Axminster at the junction with Two Ash Lane has reopened following a burst water main that led to it being closed for most of yesterday. As well as stopping the water leak, the road was resurfaced where the burst had happened.

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