BBC Somerset

A council has agreed a contract that will see them spend nearly £2.2m on tree care over the next four years.The deal agreed by Somerset Council includes funding for ongoing efforts to combat ash dieback, which is a fungal disease that has wiped out thousands of ash trees in the UK since it arrived in 2012.The Mendip and Quantock hills in Somerset are some of the areas that have been particularly effected by the spread of the disease.Councils…

Joe SkirkowskiWest of EnglandBBCPupils at Haygrove School in Somerset are being punished for wearing mascara and false eyelashesParents have described a make-up ban at their children's school as "ridiculous".They said that pupils at Haygrove School in Bridgwater, Somerset, have been inspected and separated from their peers for wearing fake eyelashes and false nails.Staff have been criticised for bringing in the rules suddenly but said they were merely enforcing an existing ban, for the benefit of the pupils' mental…

A council said it was reviewing all projects where it looked after money on behalf of organisations after "mistakes" were made over a £2.9m government-funded factory regeneration.Somerset Council's chief executive Duncan Sharkey told an audit committee the authority "got it wrong" with its financial oversight of the stalled Life Factory project in Glastonbury."The processes weren't strong enough," he said. "What we need to do is have less chance of getting things wrong again in the future and give…