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.
Work starts today building a new eastbound carriageway as part of dualling the A303 between Sparkford and Podimore. National Highways says a section of the A303 will be shut with the newly built westbound carriageway used for traffic to create a safe working area to build the new eastbound carriageway between Steart Hill and Gason Lane. The work is due to be completed by 6 am on Monday.
A childhood obesity clinic in Somerset has revealed that it is treating children as young as eight months old. The Splash clinic is the only one of its kind in the country, providing families with a dietician and paediatric support.
Somerset Council says it hopes to continue a project supporting vulnerable homeless people in the county, despite its financial pressures. Step Together has helped nearly 600 people in the county in the last five years. Earlier this year, it was told its funding was at risk as Somerset Council struggled to balance its budget. It's now been given a one-year reprieve but says its clients need a more secure commitment.
Somerset Wildlife Trust is appealing for donations to raise £40,000 to support its Wilder Youth initiative, aimed at enabling young people to become conservation champions. Surveys have shown that many young people lose their connection to nature after the age of 10 and it can take up to 20 years for the connection to be re-established. Somerset Wildlife Trust believes the Wilder Youth initiative is a way of reconnecting young people with nature.
In cricket, the ECB has announced Somerset will be among the eight Tier 1 counties that will host sides at the top of the women’s domestic game from 2025, with two more guaranteed to be added by 2027. The governing body intends to grow that number to 12 by 2029, to have an 80% increase in female players by then.
Somerset Art Weeks Festival will return this year with a new theme. The festival which has been run every year since 1994 is inviting artists to contribute to the theme of Landscape: Flux and Flow. Organisers say it’s aimed at drawing attention to the changing local landscape and intimacy with the natural environment.
A new website has been launched to support people in Somerset with mental health issues. One of Yeovil’s oldest pubs has been sold. Artwork on the theme of aviation produced by students at Yeovil College has gone on display at Leonardo Helicopters in Yeovil.A pupil at Tatworth Primary School near Chard has won a prize in a national competition for writing a book review...and more
Work laying a gas main on the A37 Dorchester Road near the Quicksilver Mail roundabout in Yeovil is to continue for a further two months. Somerset Council says the public toilets in Yeovil bus station will close at the end of the month but the waiting room will stay open temporarily. Former Yeovil Town Captain, Josh Staunton, has set up in business as a professional gardener...and more.
Somerset Council seeking to save £40 million by cutting one thousand jobs says 201 employees have so far applied to leave the authority based on voluntary redundancy. East Somerset Railway near Shepton Mallet has been used for filming the TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper's novel Rivals. An old-style red phone box in Castle Cary is being turned into Somerset's smallest museum...and more
Somerset's Chief Medical Officer says GP surgeries using healthcare professionals alongside doctors to provide treatments has freed up GP appointments. A farmer has been fined £15,000 for polluting a household water supply. Avon and Somerset’s new Police and Crime Commissioner has officially started work in the role. Chard Post Office is closed today for the handover of the business to new owners...and more.
Health inspectors have criticised Somerset's maternity services, including those at Yeovil Hospital. Somerset Council says re-opening Yeovil’s Octagon Theatre in its original form could cost up to £200,000 if a multi-million-pound upgrade of the building falls through. A film made by a Yeovil man on a budget of just five thousand pounds was screened at the prestigious British Independent Film Festival...and more.
The Ferne Animal Sanctuary near Chard says it needs an immediate injection of £100,000 to keep going. Yeovil’s Marlie Packer has returned to Yeovil Rugby Club where she began her rugby career 20 years ago. Twenty-five Town criers from across the South will be in Ilminster tomorrow competing in the annual Ilminster Town Criers' Competition...and more.
Train services through Somerset are again being disrupted today due to continued strike action by the train driver’s union ALSEF. A campaign has been launched in Somerset aimed at stopping people overdosing on opioids. A Somerset business is raising a smile with its name.‘Top Of The Clops’, a tack shop near Taunton has won a place in the top ten of the UK’s funniest business names...and more.
A woman driver has been told she faces a prison term for causing the deaths of two people in a crash on the A303. The AA says there are more potholes than ever on Somerset’s motorway network, leading to an increase in damage to vehicles. The new cancer treatment unit at Yeovil Hospital should be open before the end of the year...and more.