Local News Monday 10th July

Monday, 10 July 2023 06:00

By Steve Haigh

Bin collectors in Somerset are set to go on strike from Wednesday this week in a dispute over pay. Funding has been secured to write a business case to reopen Chard Junction railway station. The A3088 Cartgate Link Road in Yeovil is shut to traffic at night all this week. Voters in Somerton and Frome have until Wednesday to apply for a free photo ID...and more.

Bin collectors in Somerset are set to go on strike this week in a dispute over pay. Members of the Unite union will stop work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and on the same days every week for the next four weeks. Suez UK, the company contracted by Somerset Council to collect the waste, has offered staff an eight per cent pay rise that has been rejected. Householders whose waste is not collected on Wednesday are asked to put it out again next Monday. Those whose waste is not collected on Thursday should put it out again next Tuesday. And, those whose waste is not collected on Friday should put it out again the following Friday. SWP says recycling centres are not affected by the stoppage and will open as normal.

Funding has been secured to prepare a business case to reopen Chard Junction railway station. The Chard Active Travel and Transport Group has raised twenty-three thousand pounds to write an outline business proposition that will be submitted to the Department of Transport. The campaign group wants Chard Junction station, which closed in 1966, re-opened as Chard Parkway station, providing hourly services to Exeter and London.

The A3088 Cartgate Link Road in Yeovil is shut to traffic at night all this week. Somerset Council says from today the road will close at 7 pm and re-open at 7 am tomorrow for the drainage system to be cleaned.

A care home in Yeovil is closing. Somerset Care says Sunningdale Lodge care home on Sunningdale Road is no longer fit for purpose and will shut in October. Residents are being supported to find alternative care provision.

A new convenience store could soon be opening in Wincanton. Plans have been submitted to locate a ‘One Stop’ shop on the site of Bridge Motors at The Batch. The application is to change the use of a motor vehicle workshop to a retail outlet.

Voters in Somerton and Frome have until Wednesday to apply for a free photo ID. The upcoming by-election in Somerton and Frome will be the first time that voters will have to produce a photo ID to vote. Anyone who doesn't have a passport, driver’s licence or another photo ID and wants to vote in the Somerton and Frome by-election on Thursday, 20th July, should apply for a voter authority certificate through the Somerset Council website.