Friday 8th March

Friday, 8 March 2024 06:00

By Steve Haigh

The Federation of Small Businesses in Somerset has welcomed the government's decision to raise the threshold for VAT registration. Taunton MP, Rebecca Pow, says plans to dual the A358 between Ilminster and Taunton are still active despite speculation the scheme has been dropped. Two hundred years of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute is being marked with a special service of thanksgiving in Sherborne Abbey...and more.

A Somerset business leader has welcomed the government's decision to raise the threshold for VAT registration for small businesses. In this week’s budget, the Chancellor announced that firms will only have to register for VAT once their turnover reaches ninety thousand pounds, which is up from the previous limit of eighty-five thousand from April. Ruth Lambert of the Federation of Small Businesses says the increase will benefit many of her members but would have liked more help for small businesses from the Chancellor.

NHS Somerset says a new self-referral service to check signs of womb cancer in women has seen the average wait for an appointment drop from sixty-three to just four days. More than one hundred and fifty patients have made a self-referral since the service was launched last September with Somerset the first county in England to roll it out.

Taunton MP, Rebecca Pow, says plans to dual the A358 between Ilminster and Taunton are still active. Her comments follow speculation the project has been shelved as part of government spending cuts. The Junior Environment Minister says she has no knowledge of this being the case and that next week is due to meet with the Department of Transport for an update on the scheme.

Nominations close at midnight tonight for this year’s Pride of Somerset Youth Awards. Now in its seventeenth year, the scheme rewards young people under 21 years of age for their acts of bravery, for caring for others or for being outstanding in sport, music, and the arts.

Two hundred years of the RNLI will be marked at a special service of thanksgiving in Sherborne Abbey on Sunday. Chairman of the RNLI Sherborne branch, Chris Copeland, says the service is to give everyone a chance to say a big thank you to the RNLI and remember those volunteers who lost their lives saving others.

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