Local News Thursday 15th June

Thursday, 15 June 2023 06:00

By Steve Haigh

An inquest has been told that faulty scaffolding was partly to blame for the death of a worker at Brympton House at Odcombe. South Western Ambulance Service is proposing a reduction in break times for crews working on long shifts. The FA in Somerset is hosting a series of training sessions for anyone wanting to become a football referee...and more.

An inquest has been told that faulty scaffolding was partly to blame for the death of a worker at Brympton House at Odcombe. Tadeusz Marcinkowski, aged thirty-seven, was carrying out repairs to the library at the Grade-2 listed property when the scaffolding he was standing on collapsed and he fell to the floor. He died in the hospital the following day from head injuries. The inquest was told that poorly erected scaffolding used at the time had contributed to his death.

South Western Ambulance Service is proposing a reduction in break times for crews working on long shifts. Managers believe shorter break periods will improve ambulance response times but ambulance workers disagree and have won the support of their union to fight the plan.

An insect expert in Somerset says urgent action is needed to halt the decline in the insect population. A survey based on a measurement of insect remains on car number plates found that insect numbers have fallen by two-thirds in the twenty years since the last survey was carried out in 2004.

Junior doctors at hospitals in Somerset are on strike for a second day today. They’re demanding a thirty-five per cent pay rise after what they claim has been fifteen years of below-inflation increases. The government has described the pay demand as unreasonable.

Police are appealing for witnesses to an incident in which a man sustained head and other injuries in Ilminster. It happened in Station Road at around 4 am yesterday morning. Police say they don’t know how the man came to be injured and are keen to hear from anyone with dashcam or other footage of the Station Road area at the time. If you can help, you’re asked to call the non-emergency number 101.

The FA in Somerset is hosting a series of training sessions for anyone wanting to become a football referee.

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