News in Radstock

Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) are celebrating their local community this week, by launching their very first 'thank-a-thon' to thank those who keep the local lifesaving service running for the people of Bath and North East Somerset.

From Monday 19 to Friday 24 October the GWAAC team will be reaching out to local people to say thank you for keeping the local air ambulance flying. From the charity's dedicated volunteers to their corporate sponsors, and all the individuals who go the extra mile to ensure that the GWAAC crew can be there for those in urgent need, every single day - they say thank you.

First West of England has extended its innovative space booking system to the popular Somer Valley route between Paulton and Bath.

Customers on the 171/172 services can now book a space on the bus ahead of their journey. This route, which services Paulton, Midsomer Norton, Radstock and Peasedown St John, before terminating at Bath Bus Station, was chosen as one of the trials as it is well patronised and serves a number of key communities .

Time to pull on your dancing shoes.

Today is the start of the new term at the acclaimed local - but internationally respected - dance school, Sue Hill Dance.

The plans for the redevelopment of the now closed Radstock Co-op in the centre of town, will be discussed by planners and councillors in Bath next week.

Ahead of that on-line meeting, which will be broadcast on the council's You Tube channel, details have emerged about the costs and the time needed to complete the development.

Radstock Town FC would like to announce that manager, Nathan Farquharson, has stepped down from his role.

Nathan resigned earlier in the week after realising that the increasing demands of heading up a successful business, managing a Western League club and his coaching work with Bristol City were impacting too much on his family life and understandably, he felt that he could not allow that to continue and something had to change.

Bath's public health chief is asking residents to limit how much they mix with other people "before we are forced to".

Dr Bruce Laurence said it would be foolish to think the district could not go the way of Liverpool, which is under the tightest local lockdown controls, or close-behind Manchester.

People who want to help address discrimination and disadvantage in Bath and North East Somerset are invited to apply to join a new Race Panel.

Bath & North East Somerset Council is setting up the panel to promote equality in the region, in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and the disproportionately higher incidence of Covid-19 related deaths amongst Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.

The year 2020 has been extraordinary in so many ways. In the world of cricket it was only a week or so ago that Somerset narrowly lost the Bob Willis Trophy at a near freezing Lord's. The weekend before last, in the latest ever finish to a first class cricket match during the 'summer' season, Notts beat Surrey in a damp and wet final of the T20 Blast as an autumnal October storm drenched the ground.

It is however not only the County cricket game that has been affected by the pandemic.

Thanks to the generous giving of parishioners in Peasedown St John and Wellow, two churches have given away, collectively, £17,500 this year to local, national and international causes.

St John's Church in Peasedown has adopted the biblical principle of giving away the first 10% of its income each year in a bid to practice what it preaches. This year £16,500 was set aside for the church's Missions & Outreach Committee to make decisions about where the money should go.

The pupils at Ashcott School thoroughly enjoyed a virtual visit to their classroom from the author Abi Elphinstone this term. Each participating child received a personalised and signed copy of Abi's latest book 'Jungle Drop'. All this was provided by the Wells Festival of Literature.

This year has proved to be a very expensive one for us. We were determined to put on a Covid safe festival at Cedars Hall in Wells as usual. This has been a costly, but necessary, undertaking. The audience at Cedars Hall is limited to accommodate social distancing. This means a drastic reduction in ticket sales. The result of this, combined with the cost of live-streaming, means we shall not receive nearly as much money as usual. We rely on your support, either buying tickets or registering for the live-streaming of events and making a donation.