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News
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Somerset Council is marking Volunteers’ Week (1 to 7 June) by thanking the hundreds of people who give their time to support communities across the county.
Somerset Volunteering has more than 1,400 volunteers supporting around 20 council services. From driving people to vital appointments and caring for the countryside, to helping young people through programmes such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Route1 Advocacy, volunteers play a key role in many areas of daily life.
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Somerset Council is already taking action to address areas for improvement identified in a report published today (5 June) by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The CQC is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. In September 2025, they looked at nine areas spread across four themes to assess how well Somerset Council is meeting its responsibilities in adult social care.
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Somerset Council has confirmed that plastic plant pots can now be accepted for recycling via the Bright Blue Bag.
Most plastic pots can be accepted, however black plastic pots remain unrecyclable.
The change comes as the national Simpler Recycling regulations come into effect across the country.
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Somerset Council is awarding an interim 2-year contract to operate leisure centres in the East of Somerset – the former Mendip area – after the previous operator, Fusion Lifestyle, went into administration.
Freedom Leisure, which currently runs leisure services in the south (Yeovil, Wincanton and Chard) and north (Bridgwater) of the county, is being awarded the contract from 1 July 2026.
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Somerset Council has today set out the next steps in its plans to strengthen support for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
The Council’s Executive Committee discussed the Somerset SEND Reform Plan (Wednesday 3 June), ahead of the deadline for local areas to submit their proposals in response to the Government’s national SEND reform programme.
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Somerset Council has launched a formal consultation inviting residents to have their say on proposed changes to the way education is organised in Frome.
The consultation asks for views on a detailed proposal to move from the current 3-tier system of first, middle and upper schools to a 2-tier model of primary and secondary education.
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Live traffic data collected by Somerset Council has concluded there is no evidence the Celebration Mile regeneration scheme completed last year caused acute congestion in Bridgwater.
The live journey time data collected between November and May following the opening of the scheme is one of a suite of documents published as part of a review of the scheme and discussed at this week’s Executive Committee.
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Cat and dog owners are being urged to safely use flea and tick spot-on treatments as part of a new national campaign helping to protect UK waterways from contamination.
Spot-on treatments are used to protect the UK’s 21 million pet cats and dogs from fleas and ticks, but there are concerns that these medicines are not always used in line with the instructions in the product leaflet, which can cause harm to the natural environment.
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A new report from the England Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT) highlights personal stories and warns that people are being pushed into borrowing through ‘crisis, not choice’ before being left too ashamed or frightened to speak out.
The IMLT spoke to a number of borrowers who have not accessed support or reported a loan shark in order to examine the reasons why that was the case.
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