News in Shepton Mallet

We are sure lockdown has given everyone the opportunity to read more, and equally sure that many local book groups have been holding virtual meetings to discuss what they have read.

Now with the easing of lockdown there is something else to look forward to. Wells Festival of Literature is going ahead and will hold its Book Group event on Sunday October 18.

Residents and visitors to Shepton Mallet will be dining out in style next month, as a number of local restaurants, pubs and cafés take part in the government's Eat Out to Help Out scheme.

In a bid to boost the hospitality industry following the coronavirus lockdown, the government scheme will allow people who dine out from Monday to Wednesday during August to benefit from 50 per cent off the price of their meals, up to the value of £10 a head, with the government reimbursing the restaurant the remaining 50 per cent.

Mendip District Council is offering quick, cut-price Pavement Licences for bars, restaurants and pubs serving food and drink al fresco, to help high streets recover post-lockdown.

Hospitality businesses keen to maximise capacity, while still observing social distancing guidelines, will now find it easier and cheaper to obtain permission to place tables and chairs on pavements outside their premises.

Plans for a new unitary authority in Somerset face a serious test on Wednesday (July 29) at a virtual full council meeting.

Councillors at Somerset County Council will meet virtually to debate the One Somerset proposals, which would see Somerset's five existing councils abolished and replaced with a new unitary county.

Somerset Waste Partnership has confirmed the extra items it plans to pick up in kerbside collections when its new Recycle More scheme gets the go-ahead in Shepton Mallet.

Somerset Waste Board will this week consider a timetable for rolling-out its Recycle More service.

Shepton Mallet Library will be opening its doors again early next month.

Somerset Libraries has announced that the Market Place building will reopen on Monday August 3 at 10am.

Children and teenagers in Shepton Mallet are being invited to take part in a mental health survey.

It's the first survey for youngsters aged between eight and 18 being conducted by Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group Mental Health team and Young Somerset .

Sweeping changes to kerbside recycling in Shepton Mallet will start being rolled out from October.

The Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) has been gearing up for its new Recycle More scheme, which will see more items be accepted for recycling via weekly collections.

Dorothy House Hospice are calling on the superhero inside each one of us.

Over the last three months, our nation has spent a lot of time thinking about heroes. But what makes a hero? And how do you know one, when you see one?

An award-winning orthopaedic surgeon from Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre is one of just 30 orthopaedic surgery experts worldwide who have contributed to a new orthopaedic textbook for medical students, trainees and junior surgeons called Orthopaedics of the Upper and Lower Limb.

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Zahid Saeed has written a chapter in the book entitled Total Knee Replacement.