Leonardo Helicopters has won a £165 million repair and maintenance contract that will secure 200 jobs at the Yeovil factory. Police are searching for a thief who stole a safe containing £1500 in cash from a pub in Ilminster. Alzheimer's UK says the number of people with dementia in Somerset is massively under-recorded... and more.
Leonardo in Yeovil has won a contract extension worth £165 million to support the Royal Navy’s fleet of Merlin Mark 2 and Mark 4 helicopters. The deal secures 200 jobs at the Yeovil factory, together with hundreds more in the wider supply chain, and also provides training opportunities for apprentices.
Police are searching for a thief who broke into a pub in Ilminster and stole a safe containing £1500 in cash and items of jewellery. It happened at The Dolphin Pub on Silver Street in Ilminster at around 7 am last Saturday. Police believe the thief entered the premises when the cleaner was in the front of the pub and had left the back door unlocked. Anyone who saw a man wearing a white hoody and yellow high visibility tabard over black clothing carrying a safe in Ilminster at around 7 am last Saturday is asked to call the non-emergency number 101.
Citizens Advice Somerset is offering advice to people struggling with higher household bills. Council tax, water and energy charges and a host of other charges have gone up from this week, putting even greater pressure on people’s incomes. The government says the rise in the national living wage will help many people.
Alzheimer's UK says ten thousand people in Somerset are living with dementia, although the real figure is far higher, with many cases yet to be diagnosed.
A team of archaeologists and volunteers have started work reconstructing an Iron Age roundhouse near Glastonbury.
A formal planning application has been made to carry out significant improvements to Yeovil’s Octagon Theatre, costing £15 million. The Halifax Bank in King George Street in Yeovil could be converted into 17 flats. A new young people’s centre opens in Chard early in the New Year...and more.
NHS Somerset reports a strong uptake of flu jabs, but some eligible people for free vaccinations haven’t come forward. Police are appealing for witnesses to an accident on the A303 in which a pedestrian was killed. A Crewkerne woman has gone viral on TikTok after being trapped inside a Lidl store in the town... and more.
Somerset Bus Partnership has welcomed a £24.7m boost for the county's bus services. Outline planning permission has been granted to build up to 100 new homes in Ilminster. An Ilminster man has been banned from keeping animals for seven years. Residents in Chiselborough have set up a group to try and re-open the village pub...and more.
Crewkerne Community Hospital is to lose half its inpatient beds. A review will be conducted of a project to make Bridgwater more pedestrian and cyclist-friendly. Chard Methodist Church is offering residents a free lunch on Christmas Day. Yeovil-based Screwfix is opening a new outlet in Minehead...and more.
Yeovil MP Adam Dance has warned that delays in ordering 30 new medium lift helicopters for the RAF is putting the future of Somerset’s defence industries at risk. Somerset's farmers are being urged to convert more cow manure into biogas to heat homes. A new visitor centre has opened at Ham Hill country park...and more
Parcel business, Evri, has been criticised by Glastonbury and Somerton MP Sarah Dyke over what she claims have been ‘widespread delivery failures’. Demand for mental health support provided by South Western Ambulance Service is running at record levels. A nine-year-old Somerset boy has completed 100 days of litter picking for charity...and more
New data shows that crime in the Avon and Somerset police area is at an all-time high. Ferne Animal Sanctuary near Chard has issued a warning to prospective pet owners ahead of Christmas. The owner of four pubs in Somerset has warned that many could be forced to shut unless the government reconsiders business rates...and more.
Toolstream in Yeovil has been put into administration, threatening the jobs of dozens of employees. NHS Somerset has issued a last chance call for people to get a flu jab after hospital admissions increased by 76% in a week. Police are investigating the theft of a bike valued at £7,000 in Sherborne... and more
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