Local News Monday 14th February

Monday, 14 February 2022 06:00

A Yeovil travel agent says bookings for holidays abroad have gone back up to pre-pandemic levels. Schools across Somerset are having to limit face-to-face teaching due to Covid-related staff shortages. Hundreds of metres of high-value copper cabling have been stolen near Merriott. Farmers in Somerset say they want to make their farms safe for ramblers but that access can be difficult. Police have found a stolen trailer while offering security advice to a farm owner in Somerton...and more.

A Yeovil travel agent says bookings for holidays abroad have gone back up to pre-pandemic levels. Covid travel restrictions have been eased, meaning that anyone who's fully vaccinated can return to the UK without having to do any tests. Miles Morgan of Miles Morgan Travel in Middle Street, Yeovil, says there’s huge pent up demand amongst the public to holiday abroad.

Schools across Somerset are having to limit face-to-face teaching due to Covid-related staff shortages. Somerset County Council say staff sickness has become a major problem with ten per cent of schools now limiting face-to-face teaching, due to sickness. The Council says Covid cases remain high amongst school children with people in the general population locally being re-infected with Covid.

Hundreds of metres of high-value copper cabling have been stolen near Merriott. The cabling, belonging to a telecommunications company, was taken in the area of Eggwood Hill. It happened at around 1 am in the early hours of Tuesday, February 8th. Anyone with dashcam footage in the area of Merriot on that date and around that time is asked to call the police non-emergency number 101.

Farmers in Somerset say they want to make their farms safe for ramblers but that access can be difficult. It follows an updating of the Countryside Code that requires farmers to make rights of way more accessible, including removing stiles in favour of gates and putting up better signage.

Police have found a stolen trailer while offering security advice to a farm owner in Somerton. They say the trailer had been security marked which made it easy to identify as stolen. Enquiries are ongoing into how it came to be at the farm in Somerton in the first place.

People in Chard without a job are being offered free support to find work. It follows the opening of a new employment and skills hub in Chard library, in Holyrood Street, run by local housing provider, Abri.

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Friday 26 April

A man has been arrested in Castle Cary and charged with stalking, harassment and making threats to kill. The NHS in Somerset says its staff retention rate has improved over the past two years. A farmer in South Petherton is preparing to cycle 1,000 miles to raise money for charity...and more.
Thursday 25th April

The NHS is offering spring COVID-19 vaccines to people in Somerset who are at increased risk of serious illness from the virus. A new way of making roads safer for children in Somerset has started this week. A Yeovil-based apprentice has been named as a winner in the JTL Regional Awards. Haselbury Mill near Crewkerne has been put up for sale...and more
Wednesday 24th April

Yeovil Town FC have sent a strongly worded letter to the Football Association asking for plans to end FA Cup replays to be dropped. A Somerset woman who's spent the last 32 years living with Hepatitis C, says better support is needed for those affected by the contaminated blood scandal. A new school of musical theatre has opened in Chard...and more.
Tuesday 23rd April

Two teenage boys have admitted animal cruelty after filming themselves throwing a lamb down a stone staircase at Montacute. Somerset Council could lose around £5 million by selling the Marks and Spencer building in Yeovil. Chard, Wincanton, Castle Cary and Ansford are on a list of fifteen places in Somerset where new 20 mph speed limits could soon be introduced...and more.
Monday 22nd April

The parents of a two-week-old baby boy, accused of his murder at Yeovil Hospital, are to stand trial. Protesters have splashed red paint across the front of County Hall in Taunton for a second time. A comedy film about the world of competitive marrow-growing and made in Shepton Mallet has opened in cinemas across the UK...and more.
Friday 19th April

Work starts today building a new eastbound carriageway as part of dualling the A303 between Sparkford and Podimore. A childhood obesity clinic in Somerset has revealed that it is treating children as young as eight months old. Somerset Wildlife Trust has launched a campaign to recruit an army of young people to act as conservation champions...and more.
Thursday 18th April

A Martock man has been jailed after admitting to shining lasers at aircraft flying over Yeovil. Police are investigating an attempted break-in at the TK Maxx store at Babylon Hill. Nearly four hundred people have put their names forward for redundancy at Somerset Council...and more.
Wednesday 17 April

Three local primary schools have been named on a list of England's top five hundred primary schools. A new co-working space for businesswomen has opened in Wincanton. Urgent repairs are being carried out to Ilminster's new public clock after it started showing the wrong time...and more