BBC Somerset

Andy Bennett,BBC Bristol Radio PresenterandCarys Nally,BristolHandoutNico Attwell is walking 35 miles for the Ambulance Staff CharityAn ambulance call handler is walking 35 miles in a day to raise money for a NHS staff charity after some of his colleagues took their own lives. Nico Attwell, 23, from Street in Somerset, will be walking from his house to the Bristol Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in Bradley Stoke to raise money for The Ambulance Staff Charity (TASC) after losing three…

Emma ElgeeWest of England PA MediaNHS services are expecting the first week of January to be their busiest of the year NHS services are asking for public support for what is expected to be the busiest week of the year.The NHS in Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire has said the pressures of extreme cold weather and a bad flu season will make the start of the year challenging. It is asking the public to think…

PA MediaThe land in Shepton Mallet forms part of the Duchy of Cornwall estateMore than 600 homes and a primary school has been approved on one of Prince William's estates.The Duchy of Cornwall, along with C G Fry and Son Ltd, will build 620 new homes on the Mid Somerset Showground in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, and also build a care home and nursery.Councillors have now voted to approve the plans ensuring river pollution is mitigated after Somerset Council…

A group of MPs have called for an urgent meeting with the government over a local authority's funding settlement.Somerset's six Liberal Democrat MPs said Somerset Council had been offered a "profoundly disappointing" funding package, which amounted to around a 1% increase for the next financial year.The politicians said they are worried local people will have to pay higher council taxes as a result and argued the county faces higher costs as a result of its rural setting.The government…

A rural GP surgery is building more clinical spaces after receiving funding from the NHS.Axbridge and Wedmore Medical Practice in Somerset is one of 16 GP practices in the county to share £102m from the Department for Health and Social Care to refurbish or expand their premises.The surgery said there would be six new clinical rooms across its two sites, which are based on Houlgate Way in Axbridge and St Medard Road in Wedmore.According to the Local Democracy…

A community radio station has been asked to move out of its hospital studios after more than 55 years due to "increasing NHS pressures".Apple FM has been based at Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital in Somerset for more than five decades, starting as hospital radio for patients in 1969.Greg Perkins, managing director of the station, told BBC Radio Somerset: "While we fully understand the pressures the NHS is facing, we are now reaching out to the people of Taunton…

A businessman has admitted opening a new cinema will cost a lot of money - but he could not imagine doing anything else.Pat Scott runs four independent cinemas in Somerset, after learning how to be a projectionist in the military.His next venue in Wincanton will open in February, after someone in the town asked him to take over an Art Deco building which was once used as a church.Scott said the venture was "very expensive, but it's what…