Legal action is being taken against the Ministry of Defence by former service personnel who claim they've developed cancer due to toxic exhaust fumes from helicopters. Buses of Somerset are trialling a new route to the Yeovilton Air Base on the 54 service. A Somerset dad whose daughter died aged fifteen months has started fundraising for a Bereavement Room at Yeovil Hospital...and more.
Legal action is being taken against the Ministry of Defence by former service personnel who claim they've developed cancer due to toxic exhaust fumes from helicopters. It relates to four helicopter types including the Sea King, which Westlands now Leonardo in Yeovil made. Many of the claimants are from Somerset.
Buses of Somerset are trialling a new route to the Yeovilton Air Base on the 54 service. The route will serve people working at the Navy base and visitors to the Fleet Air Arm Museum. The trial starts next Monday and runs until September.
A Somerset woman who's spent a decade being treated in psychiatric wards says horse riding has transformed her life. Shelby Lunt took up riding as part of her rehabilitation while a patient. She's now living in her own home and enjoying life to the full thanks, she says, to discovering the joys of horse riding.
Avon and Somerset Police have thanked the Netflix series Baby Reindeer for encouraging stalking victims to come forward. They say in the last twelve months, more than three thousand cases were reported, and the figure is likely to be higher this year.
A Somerset dad whose daughter died aged fifteen months has started a fundraising campaign in her memory. Harry Foster is running 5k every day, raising money for a Bereavement Room at Yeovil Hospital.
A father has been found guilty of murdering his two-week-old son at Yeovil Hospital. From Monday, no trains will be stopping at Crewkerne until further notice. Experts say the dry weather has created ideal conditions for wasps to multiply in significant numbers across Somerset. A rare railway carriage from the 1880s, believed to have been built in Somerset, is being given a new lease of life...and more.
Tourism leaders in Somerset are hoping to reverse last year’s downturn in visitor numbers now that the six-week-long school summer holiday is underway. A Chard woman who was driving a van without insurance that crashed has been given a 16-month driving ban. A Somerset hedgehog rescue centre says a lack of rain and hard ground conditions are making it difficult for hedgehogs to survive this summer...and more.
Somerset Council is planning to open twelve new Special Educational Needs units in mainstream schools. Yeovil Hospital is participating in a trial that could revolutionise the treatment of sepsis within the NHS. A 55-acre site in Chard, with plans approved to build 295 homes and a new football ground, has been put up for sale...and more
Somerset Community Foundation has launched a "Together for West Somerset Appeal" to help families affected by last Thursday's school coach crash on Exmoor. People in Somerset are being encouraged to improve their recycling of food waste. Free family cooking sessions are being held in Chard. A new children’s soft play area is soon to open in Yeovil...and more
A GoFundMe page set up to support families of last week’s Exmoor bus crash, in which a 10-year-old boy died, has raised over forty thousand pounds. A local councillor is calling for the introduction of speed cameras on the A30, from Yeovil to Sherborne. A group from a school in Ilchester have hiked 26 miles across the Jurassic Coast to fundraise in memory of a school colleague...and more
EDF has completed another milestone in constructing the new 'Hinkley C' nuclear power plant near Bridgwater. The Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire opens today with helicopters built in Yeovil on display. A road leading to Chard reservoir, shut two months ago for strengthening work to a dam wall, has re-opened...and more
Yeovil MP Adam Dance says he has serious concerns about plans that could see the closure of inpatient beds at Crewkerne Community Hospital. Ilminster residents are being asked to vote in a referendum on adopting a new neighbourhood plan for the town. An event in which people take part in a race against horses is returning to Somerset later this year...and more
A children’s play area in Ilminster has been closed on safety grounds after badger setts were found on the land. Somerset Council sold off £90m of property assets last year to help fight off bankruptcy. Crewkerne Community Hospital could be turned into a neighbourhood health centre...and more.