Tuesday 14th April

Tuesday, 14 April 2026 06:00

By Steve Haigh

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

Avon and Somerset Police has launched a new five-year plan to tackle anti-social behaviour. The strategy focuses on prevention, and early intervention. It aims to strengthen partnership working and better identify vulnerable victims. Police say intelligence is key with information from local people, neighbourhood officers, and partner organisations helping target resources where they’re needed most.

Additional GP appointments will soon be available at three local surgeries, following a £1 million investment to upgrade NHS facilities in Somerset. Church Street Surgery in Martock and Crewkerne Health Centre are both set to expand, creating extra consulting space for patients. Millbrook Surgery in Castle Cary will see a new clinical room built. The improvements aim to make it easier for patients to access GP services.

Somerset Council has lost an appeal over plans to build a care home near Taunton. The authority had rejected proposals by developer Belstone Fox to build the home and 19 houses in the grounds of Woodlands Castle in Ruishton, saying the scheme would harm the character of the listed building and surrounding village. But following a public inquiry, the Planning Inspectorate has overturned the decision. It’s ordered Somerset Council to pay the developer’s legal costs linked to the appeal.

The Mayor of Chard, Councillor Victoria Bates, is inviting people in the town to take part in a series of community event this month. Highlights include the Mayor’s Charity Ball on Saturday April 18th, followed by the traditional St George’s Dragon Parade through the town on Sunday April 19th. On Sunday 26th April, local cyclists set off for Chard’s twin town of Helmstedt in Germany.

Stoke-sub-Hamdon couple, Dave and Julie Thomas, whose daughter, Jess, died of cancer 10 years ago have raised £128,000 in her memory. The couple began fundraising for the Teenage Cancer Trust in 2016 in recognition of the support it gave their daughter during the final stages of her life. Later this month, two family friends will take on the London Marathon in Jess’s memory.

More from News

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
Friday 10th April

Maternity services at Yeovil Hospital will reopen on Tuesday April 21st. A Somerset woman, who relies on a wheelchair for mobility, has criticised changes to the Motor Motability scheme. Somerset Freemasons have presented a cheque for forty-three thousand pounds to Young Somerset, a charity that supports young people in the county... and more
Thursday 9th April

Yeovil Town Football Club has received a warning that it could be struck off the register at Companies House. Somerset Council has been given £22 million to provide assistance to people facing cost of living pressures. Members of 1st Ilminster Scout Group have spent a night sleeping outdoors to experience the challenges faced by homeless military veterans... and more
Wednesday 8th April

A Yeovil school teacher has been banned from teaching for sharing inappropriate details about her private life with pupils. A Stoke-sub-Hamdon woman has been given a 17-month driving ban. A Yeovil woman who survived bone cancer is raising is running the London Marathon... and more
Tuesday 7th April

Somerset Council has set aside three hundred and seventy thousand pounds to keep open five leisure centres in the Mendip area. Watercombe Lane in Yeovil is set to close for thirty-one days for gas mains replacement works. It’s been announced that Martock will stage a Pride event in June...and more
Thursday 2nd April

The joint master of a hunt in Somerset has criticised the decision to hold a public consultation on banning trail hunting. Images of two men police want to speak to in connection with an arson attack on a barber’s shop in Wincanton have been released. The company that runs four leisure centres in the Mendip area has gone into administration... and more
Wednesday 1st April

No money has been committed to major new road projects in Somerset. A road linking Chard and Clayhanger has been closed after it collapsed due to badgers burrowing under the surface. The Bishop of Bath and Wells is on day-2 of his pilgrimage across Somerset to mark the holy week of Easter... and more
Tuesday 31st March

Somerset Council says it doesn’t have the money to install solar panels on the roof of the Octagon Theatre. Three men have been charged in connection with an investigation into a hunt in Somerset. Changes have been announced to the times of waste collections in Somerset over the Easter holidays... and more