Local News Friday 15th October

    Yeovil Hospital is warning of wait times of more than four hours at its A&E department. A case continues in the High Court today in which parents are challenging Somerset County Council decision to radically change the school system in Ilminster and Crewkerne. A national house builder has launched a recruitment drive aimed at retired military people living in Somerset. A sale of items at the former Oscar Mayer factory in Chard has raised £4,000 for local organisations.

    Yeovil Hospital is warning of wait times of more than four hours at its A&E department. It says the number of people attending on Tuesday this week was the highest this year. To help spread the workload, the Hospital is asking people to go to other hospitals that have A&E departments where they live. Meanwhile, If you’re looking to be given an AstraZeneca Covid jab, NHS Somerset says the vaccine is now available locally but only at the vaccination centre at Haynes Motor Museum in Sparkford.

    A case continues in the High Court today in which parents are challenging Somerset County Council decision to radically change the school system in Ilminster and Crewkerne. The changes would mean some schools shutting and the current 3-tier system of education being replaced with a slimmed-down 2-tier system. 

    A national housebuilder has launched a recruitment drive aimed at retired military people living in Somerset. Barratt David Wilson Homes say they need to recruit more people with Army, Navy and RAF backgrounds as their skills are ideally suited for working within the building sector.

    A sale of items at the former Oscar Mayer factory in Chard has raised £4,000 for local organisations. Oscar Mayer shut the factory in June this year after being in the town for 38-years. The sale included memorabilia and kitchen equipment with all the proceeds from the sale going to Ferne Animal Sanctuary, Holyrood Academy, Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance and the League of Friends of Chard Hospital 
     

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    • Friday 25th July

      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.

    • Thursday 24th July

      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. 

    • Wednesday 23rd July

      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

    • Tuesday 22nd July

      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

    • Monday 21st July

      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

    • Friday 18th July

      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

    • Thursday 17th July

      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

    • Wednesday 16th July

      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.

    Today's Weather

    • Yeovil

      Sunny intervals

      High: 23°C | Low: 15°C

    • Chard

      Sunny intervals

      High: 27°C | Low: 14°C

    • Crewkerne

      Sunny intervals

      High: 27°C | Low: 14°C

    • Somerton

      Sunny intervals

      High: 24°C | Low: 15°C

    • Wincanton

      Sunny intervals

      High: 25°C | Low: 15°C

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