Somerset Confidential

15/09/2025

This week planners at Bath & North East Somerset Council must decide the fate of the Rec. Gifted to the citizens of Bath for recreation, a section of it is occupied by Bath Rugby. Some say illegally. Not so say the club.
Battle lines have been drawn!

Sir John Betjeman wrote the poem, "The sack of Bath" when an ugly shopping centre desecrated the city. James Garrett wonders if history is about to repeat itself? Poetry please?

12/09/2025

This week we take a look at some pretty big topics, all of which have hit the news for different reasons. Council appointed consultants in their search for £101m in savings. But do the sums add up?
An independent report into the role of Scrutiny confirms many of the issues we have raised about Somerset Council, and raises concerns about further restrictions on public questions to the council.
In a developer appears to flout a planning condition while Somerset Council sit on their hands. Why no enforcement?
And finally a new report into the loss of farmland identifies issue that our readers will be familiar with. But also shows that good grade agricultural land is being lost more rapidly in Somerset than elsewhere in the country. Do our councillors actually understand the issue of food security.
You can more here:

This week we have a lack of enforcement in Martock, the appointment of consultants at Somerset Council, a report on Somerset's scrutiny that confirms our worst fears, and more on vanishing farmland.

12/09/2025

This is not our full news round-up but we have just received a progress report from Yeovil Hospital on maternity services and thought we should share this immediately

Yeovil Hospital is making progress with its inpatient maternity and Special Care Baby Unit, but is still unable to say when they will reopen...

08/09/2025

It has taken a long time to extract the info from Council, but finally we can tell the full story of the Life Factory in .
Including when payments were made and who didn’t ask questions.
A story that needs to be told.

How councillors and Town Deal Board members failed to ask the questions that would have told them that Glastonbury's Life Factory project was out of control, and then paid the money over.

05/09/2025

This week we invite resident Ian Tinsley to talk about the fraught business of selling a retirement home when the occupant has died. It turns out this can be a minefield of unexpected costs…
In Chard there seems to be some confusion about what democracy is, with one candidate complaining that by-elections waste tax payers money.
Bridgwater is to have a new Post Office, but the Post Office Limited has gone very coy about whether they will be putting money in or not.
In Keinton Mandeville, an impressive turn out of Somerset Councillors (Including 2 portfolio holders) fails to dissuade residents from attempting a Judicial Review of a council planning decision.
And finally, there is the ongoing saga of the Octagon and a fractious Yeovil Town Council meeting on Tuesday. Why is the council only willing to consider one option?

This week we look at the perils of sheltered housing and help a candidate understand what the "Dem" stands for in LibDem, The Octagon latest, SHOCK in Somerset and a new Post Office in Bridgwater

04/09/2025

In our latest podcast with Frome FM we invite Cllr Theo Butt-Philip to talk about the transformation project at Somerset Council as they try to find over £100m in budget savings. Theo explains the plan and faces questions from Andrew and Sam.

Theo Butt-Philip faces questions about Somerset Council's transformation

01/09/2025

David Warburton. An obituary.

01/09/2025

Somerset Council’s predecessor district councils borrowed heavily to fund an investment property portfolio. But what about the other Somerset councils. How did North Somerset and B&NES manage? And now they are saddled with debt, how are they managing it?

Today we take a look at how the three councils of Somerset have managed their debt mountain. Where does the money come from and where does it go? And how do the councils compare?

29/08/2025

As the bird flu outbreak in Yeovil is successfully contained, a new outbreak is found at Evercreech – which Defra describes as Frome!
We look at the latest report of purchasing by Somerset Council which failed to follow the council’s own rules.
There’s another carehome under scrutiny, this time near Glastonbury, where a Requires Improvement rating has been given.
The new planning regime announced by Somerset Council doesn’t seem to be applied consistently. We question a lack of enforcement at Westonzoyland where a retrospective planning application is being considered.
The EA’s blanket spraying of glyphosate may be working, but is it a cancer risk. And are weeds developing resistance to glyphosate? And some curious statements emerge from a by-election for Chard Town Council.

Restrictions in Frome/Evercreech(!), councils breaching their own policy, a Chard by-election curiosity, problems for the EA, poor planning enforcement and a Glastonbury carehome needs to improve.

28/08/2025

James Garrett investigates the strange case of a boundary wall between National Trust property and the University of Bath. The wall was recently repaired. Not a cheap exercise either. But who should pay for it? Weaving through the history, the contradictory statements and corporate wriggling it is a story that simply refuses to make any kind of sense.

Why did the University of Bath pay £0.3m to repair a wall it seems not to own? Claims over the wall by the University and the National Trust are full of contradictions. James Garrett investigates.

25/08/2025

The Leaders of Bath and Cambridge councils want to levy a tourism tax. But as Somerset Confidential investigates, we discover that while the idea per se sounds like a good one, the proposals put forward appear to be unfair and to discriminate against some tourists over others. Meanwhile, one of the biggest problems created by over-tourism is simply being overlooked.

As tourists flock to Bath in ever increasing numbers, Cllr Leader Kevin Guy is asking the Deputy Prime Minister for permission to raise a tourist tax. We take a look at how fair this would be.

22/08/2025

This week we report on a train strike at CrossCountry. This will mostly impact on service through Taunton but also Weston super Mare.
Last week we reported on plans for a demonstration at West Mendip Hospital outside Glastonbury. We went along to the demo to see how it went and what people were cross about.
Somerset Council announce a contract for building new Bridgwater Carnival sheds. They hold the funds, but the council won’t be paying for it.
There’s serious concern about the state of the NHS (ICB) serving B&NES after Government withheld funds from them. We take a look at why and for that matter, why the communications team don’t communicate.
As Sarah D**e complains about the latest price rises for train fares, we look at what you’d have to earn to be able to afford to live in Castle Cary for instance, and work in London.
And did you know that Healthwatch, the independent body that looks at healthcare in our county is about to lose its independence? Something that has crept under the radar but is unlikely to be good news.

This week we look at a train strike, financial woes at B&NES' ICB, the loss of Healthwatch, expensive train tickets, the fate of community hospitals and big sheds for Bridgwater.