TSB is closing its Yeovil branch. The bank, on the corner of High Street and King George Street, will shut on April 12th next year. The County Council has blamed a lack of funding at Somerset’s schools for pupil suspension rates being so high. Covid booster jabs are now on offer locally to people in their 40s. Somerset Waste Partnership is claiming success with its ‘Recycle More’ initiative and a shop in Chard has raised £1,000 for the League of Friends at Chard Hospital.
TSB is closing its Yeovil branch. The bank, on the corner of High Street and King George Street, will shut on April 12th next year. Yeovil is one of seventy TSB branches nationwide that are being closed. TSB says with people banking online, the number of customers visiting their banks has fallen dramatically.
The County Council has blamed a lack of funding at Somerset’s schools for pupil suspension rates being so high. It follows figures from Ofsted that show pupil suspensions at Somerset’s schools are nearly double the national average.
Covid booster jabs are now on offer locally to people in their 40s. The move is aimed at slowing the spread of the Omicron variant and getting as many people as possible vaccinated by the end of January. Meanwhile, a dedicated Covid Helpline in Somerset, set up as a single point of contact at the start of the pandemic, has now taken more than 17,000 calls. The phone number for Somerset Coronavirus Helpline is 0300 790 6275.
Somerset Waste Partnership is claiming success with its ‘Recycle More’ initiative. It says that since the launch of the blue bag collection scheme in October last year, 5,600 tonnes of additional waste has been sent for recycling, including 1,000 extra tonnes of plastic.
A shop in Chard has raised £1,000 for the League of Friends at Chard Hospital. The Original Factory Shop on Great Western Road raised the money through selling charity Christmas cards and hosting a charity bingo night.
Parents in Somerset are being advised not to leave their children unsupervised with pets. Somerset Council says it's dealing with a backlog of sixteen hundred planning applications. Ninety thousand pounds has been raised so far for Somerset Community Foundation’s appeal supporting people affected by last week’s coach crash in West Somerset...and more
A boat used for sightseeing trips on the River Parrett at Langport has sunk after being vandalised. A union representing firefighters in Somerset says former retained staff are missing out on pension payments. Thirty-nine new affordable homes are to be built in Merriot...and more
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