Tuesday 11th March

Tuesday, 11 March 2025 05:00

By Steve Haigh

The union representing workers at Somerset Council is warning of further job cuts at the council next year. Secondary school pupils in Somerset are being offered help to withstand peer pressure to vape or smoke. The bells of St George's Church in Hinton St George have been fully restored after becoming difficult to ring...and more

The union representing workers at Somerset Council is warning of further job cuts at the council next year. Somerset Council is making 550 people redundant this year, increasing its share of the Council Tax by seven-and-a-half percent and selling commercial investments, to help fill a budget gap of £103 million for the financial year 2025/26 starting in April. But speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Unison branch secretary, Micheal Duffy, said relying on receipts from selling properties to pay the day-to-day running costs is not sustainable and warns the Council will end up in the same position, making more job cuts, next year.

Secondary school pupils in Somerset are being offered help to withstand peer pressure to vape or smoke. The sessions focus on giving young people strategies to deal with situations when they feel pressured to join in.

Trains aren’t running between Yeovil Pen Mill and Castle Cary this week to allow for Network Rail to carry out repairs to the Heart of Wessex Line in the Yeovil area. Network Rail says the work is crucial to preventing the track bed from becoming flooded. A bus replacement service is running between Yeovil Pen Mill and Castle Cary to Sunday 16th March.

The six bells of St George's Church in Hinton St George have been restored after becoming difficult to ring. The bells, dating from 1628, were removed last year and overhauled with new headstocks, clappers, bearings, wheels, and ropes. A day of celebration will be held this Saturday with the bells rung formally for the first time.

An artist has painted a life-size image of a giraffe on the side of a house in a Somerset village. It's the latest in a series of animal murals commissioned by people living in Meare, near Glastonbury.

An exhibition of artwork with a difference has opened in Langport. The display called ‘Thinking Inside the Box’, in which artists are challenged to create a piece of work to fit within a metre-squared suspended cube, is on at the Undercroft in Bow St in Langport to the end of the month.

More from News

Wednesday 24th December

A formal planning application has been made to carry out significant improvements to Yeovil’s Octagon Theatre, costing £15 million. The Halifax Bank in King George Street in Yeovil could be converted into 17 flats. A new young people’s centre opens in Chard early in the New Year...and more.
Tuesday 23rd December

NHS Somerset reports a strong uptake of flu jabs, but some eligible people for free vaccinations haven’t come forward. Police are appealing for witnesses to an accident on the A303 in which a pedestrian was killed. A Crewkerne woman has gone viral on TikTok after being trapped inside a Lidl store in the town... and more.
Monday 22nd December

Somerset Bus Partnership has welcomed a £24.7m boost for the county's bus services. Outline planning permission has been granted to build up to 100 new homes in Ilminster. An Ilminster man has been banned from keeping animals for seven years. Residents in Chiselborough have set up a group to try and re-open the village pub...and more.
Friday 19th December

Crewkerne Community Hospital is to lose half its inpatient beds. A review will be conducted of a project to make Bridgwater more pedestrian and cyclist-friendly. Chard Methodist Church is offering residents a free lunch on Christmas Day. Yeovil-based Screwfix is opening a new outlet in Minehead...and more.
Thursday 18th December

Yeovil MP Adam Dance has warned that delays in ordering 30 new medium lift helicopters for the RAF is putting the future of Somerset’s defence industries at risk. Somerset's farmers are being urged to convert more cow manure into biogas to heat homes. A new visitor centre has opened at Ham Hill country park...and more
Wednesday 17th December

Parcel business, Evri, has been criticised by Glastonbury and Somerton MP Sarah Dyke over what she claims have been ‘widespread delivery failures’. Demand for mental health support provided by South Western Ambulance Service is running at record levels. A nine-year-old Somerset boy has completed 100 days of litter picking for charity...and more
Tuesday 14th December

New data shows that crime in the Avon and Somerset police area is at an all-time high. Ferne Animal Sanctuary near Chard has issued a warning to prospective pet owners ahead of Christmas. The owner of four pubs in Somerset has warned that many could be forced to shut unless the government reconsiders business rates...and more.
Monday 15th December

Toolstream in Yeovil has been put into administration, threatening the jobs of dozens of employees. NHS Somerset has issued a last chance call for people to get a flu jab after hospital admissions increased by 76% in a week. Police are investigating the theft of a bike valued at £7,000 in Sherborne... and more