Monday 18th April 2011 Glastonbury Festival sell out
Pre-ordered tickets for the 2011 Glastonbury Festival that were
returned unwanted have sold out in under two hours. The £195 tickets
were originally snapped up last October for a £50 deposit. However,
not all tickets allocated are subsequently claimed and the unwanted
tickets are then offered to the public for a second chance. The
returned tickets sold out in record time when they went on sale on
Sunday 17 April. The event at Worthy Farm in Somerset issued 137,500
tickets and starts on 22 June. The festival features a huge variety of
acts but this year’s big names are U2, Coldplay and Beyonce. Somerset

Thursday 7th April 2011 Lock gates recycled into Glastonbury ‘bullring’
Lock gates removed from the Caen Hill Flight near Devizes are being
recycled to create a 200 seat arena at Glastonbury. The plan is to
have 70 12 foot high lock gates will be arranged in a circle to create
the bullring. The ‘Campo Pequeno’ will stage mock bullfights with an
artificial bull. Each gate weighs two tonnes and are 10 inches thick.
However, Glastonbury Festival organiser Michael Eavis still needs to
find another 20 gates to complete the circle. British Waterways, who
look after Britain’s canals and many of its inland waterways, have a
policy of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ and so were happy to see the
20-year-old lock gates get a new lease of life. Somerset

Tuesday 29th March 2011 Glastonbury Holy Thorn buds again
The famous Glastonbury Holy Thorn tree has showed signs of life again
after being vandalised last year. The Holy Thorn, which grew from a
cutting of a tree said to have been planted by Joseph of Arimathea
2,000 years ago, was attacked and severely damaged in 2010. But new
green shoots have been spotted on the trunk, much to the delight of
some of the inhabitants of Glastonbury. Morgana West, from the
Glastonbury Pilgrim Centre, said: "The new growth was actually spotted
at the spring equinox which is quite encouraging. There's a skip in
everybody's step in the town.” Somerset

Monday 21st March 2011 Largest Roman coin hoard to stay in Somerset
The largest single collection of Roman coins to be unearthed in
Britain will stay in Somerset where it was originally found. The
coins, dating back over 1,700 years, were discovered by prospector
Dave Crisp at a site near Frome, in Somerset. The collection was
purchased by the Museum of Somerset for £320,250. The 52,000 Roman
coins would have been worth around the same as four year’s salary for
an officer in a Roman legion. The hoard was buried in a large pot, the
combined weight of the coins and vessel being a very substantial
350lb. Somerset

Monday 14th March 2011 Green light for Bath and West showground’s £120m regeneration
Mendip District Council have unanimously approved plans for a £120m
regeneration of the Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallet. The
proposals include a shopping village, a business park, an exhibition
hall and two hotels. A solar array to supply 5 megawatts of
electricity to the showground is also in the plans. Jane Guise, chief
executive of the Royal Bath and West of England Society, said: "It's
significant because it's the first formal step in the process towards
redeveloping the showground. The planning and the discussions have
been going on for about nine years." Somerset

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Swan killer reward hits £26,000
Author Sir Terry Pratchett has added £10,000 to swell a reward to
catch the killer of 31 swans found shot with an air rifle to £26,080.
Sir Terry, Author of the Discworld novels, said he was ‘incensed at
the news” of more swans being shot in Somerset. He added: “People who
do this sort of thing to an animal are probably a danger to people as
well. I don't think the punishment will fit the crime. For some idiot
to fire an airgun for fun - I was just incensed. I've seen the
sanctuary, I've lived in Somerset and I know the area." Somerset

Monday 28th February 2011 Stuck 4x4 towed from beach
A rescue hovercraft and two teams of coastguards were called to Brean
Beach in Somerset after a family of five got stuck in the mud in their
4x4 car. The family’s stricken Hyundai Tuscon was jammed in the soft
sand some half a mile out from the shore and had to be towed to safety
by Burnham Area Rescue Boat’s (Barb) tractor. Mark Newman, chairman of
Barb, said: "The tide was going out at the time so fortunately, while
it was a serious position they were in, the tide was within an hour of
two of reaching them. They were about a mile from where a
five-year-old girl died on mudflats several years ago. It's a
dangerous stretch of coastline when the warning signs are not heeded." Somerset

Monday 27th December 2010 Freezing swans rescued
The harsh winter is taking a heavy toll on British wildlife.
Twenty-one swans were rescued from freezing conditions on the Somerset
Levels, but a further 10 were found dead. Volunteers from Secret World
Wildlife Rescue have been at work rounding up the starving birds,
which are often stuck in the ice on the South Drain. Animal care
manager Sara Cowan said that the frozen ground and the water was
preventing the swans from feeding. "With the big freeze nothing has
thawed and everything is really struggling now," said Ms Cowan. "The
swans are having terrible problems. They're flying around trying to
find their waterways, but everything's just white and they're coming
down on anything. We've had three on the hard shoulder of the M5 in
the last two days." Somerset

Tuesday 19th October 2010 Dunster’s cobbles could fall victim of legal worries
The picturesque Somerset village of Dunster could lose its medieval
cobbled pathways because of fears for personal safety from their
uneven surfaces. The cobbles are presently in a very poor state of
repair and have nobody currently responsible for their upkeep. Worries
of litigation should anyone fall on the cobbles after repairs were
completed has stopped the Dunster Working Group from fixing the paths.
The Highways Agency has responsibility for the roads but not the
pavements. According to Mr Toogood, the chairman of the Dunster
Working Group, the Highways Agency will only consider taking them over
if smooth pavement is laid. Somerset

Monday 18th October 2010 Severn barrage tidal energy scheme faces the axe
Plans for a controversial £30bn Severn barrage tidal energy project
look likely to fall by the wayside. Supporters of the planned
structure, which would have stretched from Weston-super-Mare in
Somerset to Cardiff, claimed it would have generated 5% of Britain’s
electricity needs. Secretary of State for Energy Chris Huhne is
expected axe the scheme saying it is not "financially viable" and he
will instead give the go-ahead to new nuclear power stations. Shadow
Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said scrapping the barrage would be
"equally disastrous" for the economy and the environment. "Not only is
Chris Huhne turning his back on the proposed barrage scheme that would
have created hundreds of good quality green jobs for Welsh people, it
appears that he decided to abandon in its entirety the idea of using
the Severn estuary as a generator of electricity.” Somerset