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News roundup
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A new community initiative is helping support displaced people in Somerset through one of our county’s favourite summer activities – cricket.
Somerset has a long history of welcoming people who have been forced to leave their homes due to fear of violence or persecution. Anyone who finds themselves placed in Somerset will be supported by Somerset Council working alongside a range of charities and partner organisations.
The Maqbul Project has been organised by the Somerset Cricket Foundation with funding from Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership (SASP) through Sport England’s Together Fund.
 Foster carers in Somerset are playing a vital role supporting children and young people from across the globe who have been forced to leave their families for safety.
Somerset has a long history of welcoming people who have had to flee their homes due to fear of violence or persecution. Anyone who finds themselves placed in Somerset will be supported by Somerset Council working alongside a range of charities and partner organisations.
This includes unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) who have had no choice but to leave their families and seek safety in a new country.
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Image courtesy of The Reading Agency 2023
Children in Somerset can sharpen their mental and physical skills this summer by joining the Summer Reading Challenge at Somerset Council’s Libraries.
Youngsters aged 4-11 can visit Somerset Libraries to join a superstar team and their marvellous mascots and get involved in the Challenge themed around the power of play, sport, games and physical activity.
Through taking part in the Challenge, with free materials from Somerset Libraries and online via summerreadingchallenge.org.uk, children will be encouraged to keep physically and mentally active over the summer break. The characters – brought to life by children’s author and illustrator Loretta Schauer – navigate a fictional summer obstacle course and track their reading as they go, rewarded by free incentives including stickers.
Image courtesy of UKHSA
On Tuesday 20 July the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced changes to the HPV vaccine programme
As laid out in the bipartite letter from UKHSA and NHS England, from 1 September 2023 the schedules will be:
- A one dose schedule for the routine adolescent programme and gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) programme before the 25th birthday,
- A 2-dose schedule from the age of 25 in the GBMSM programme
- A 3-dose schedule for individuals who are immunosuppressed and those known to be HIV-positive
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Somerset Council’s Highways team have started to surface dress some roads as part of the summer maintenance programme.
Surface dressing is a nationally recognised maintenance technique for sealing a road, improving skid resistance, and preventing water getting under the surface. This is crucial to help stop potholes forming. It works by coating an existing road with bitumen, covering it with stone chippings and then rolling it.
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The list of candidates standing for election in the Parliamentary by election in Somerton and Frome has now been published.
The statement of persons nominated can be found on the Council’s Electoral Services webpage and the by election will take place on 20 July. The up-to-date list of polling places will also be published.
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Waste collections started earlier this week to help crews impacted by the hot weather conditions and to beat additional traffic on the roads due to Glastonbury Festival.
The early starts, which will continue into Monday 26 June, will help to minimise any chance of disruption to recycling, rubbish or garden waste collections across the county.
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Benches in Taunton High Street have been given a new lease of life with environmental-themed paintings.
Somerset Council has been working with GoCreate and Rights Community Action to re-invigorate Taunton’s High Street Benches with beautiful community based artwork, aimed at raising climate change awareness and inspiring people to do more to protect our natural world.
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