A NEW vets will be opening in Wells this autumn after five years of planning.

Shepton Vets are opening their first new branch practice at Cathedral Park behind Premier Inn. The companion animal side of the practice has been growing steadily and the number of vets has increased from three to eight in the past 10 years, so the new branch is intended to help meet the growing needs of Wells, Shepton Mallet and surrounding villages.

Wells Vets already has strong ties to the community as the main team members have grown up in or around Wells, and all attended Wells Blue School.

"The whole team are really excited about opening the Wells branch," said director and small animal vet Martin Law.

"I grew up in Wells and it's always been an ambition of mine to run my own practice in the city. It's fantastic to have such talented colleagues that have also grown up in the area and feel as passionately about working in the community as I do."

Vet Josh White said: "Having the opportunity to help run such a new practice where I grew up is something I'm really looking forward to. I'm sure there will be many familiar faces – and probably some I haven't seen since school."

The new practice will be the first purpose-built vets surgery in Wells. It is undergoing its final fixtures and fittings, with a planned opening date for early October.

The practice will be announcing a date for an open day soon when the community will be invited to have a look inside.

The out of hours emergency service will be shared with the team at Shepton, said Martin, providing a comprehensive first opinion service for small animals clients.

"The practice has developed services such as keyhole spays, health plans to spread the cost of routine healthcare and feline friendly status to meet the needs of clients and will continue to invest in new services for the benefit of patients," he said.

"The team across both practices have expertise in all areas of feline, canine and exotics work, with two team members currently studying for their advanced certificates in medicine and surgery."

• Picture: The Wells Vets team pictured at the site of the new practice. From left: Callum Brook, Georgina Vernoum, Josh White, Natalie Hill and Martin Law