News in Wells

A planning application to build 148 homes on the outskirts of Wells has been refused by Mendip District Council as it would have a negative affect on the surrounding area.

The application for outline planning for residential development of up to 148 dwellings including means of access with all other matters reserved on at Wookey Hole Road, Wells, had been made by Land Allocations Ltd.

A Wells-based member of Glastonbury's 5G Advisory Committee has spoken out about why he resigned before the group's report was published.

David Swain was one of four members who resigned, claiming that scientific fact was not being acknowledged by some on the committee, but chairman Jon Cousins insists that he would have preferred if the quartet had stayed in the committee to help provide robust arguments.

The manager of the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) has praised the behaviour of visitors to beauty spots near Wells.

Following the easing of lockdown restrictions, car parks were busy within the AONB, particularly at Deer Leap.

A Wells Blue School student is releasing her first single, a song written and recorded during the Covid-19 crisis and giving a snapshot of the sadness of lockdown from a teenager's perspective.

Ciara Millington explains that her song Isolated, on which she performs all the instruments and voices including a full string quartet, is an ode to separation from friends and to the uncertainty of the future of the planet itself.

Somerset's tourism board has urged people to not travel to Wells and the surrounding area unless they are coming for exercise and from less than an hour away.

Concern has been expressed by some residents in Wells that the number of people visiting is on the increase following the easing of lockdown restrictions.

Just one in nine workers in Mendip walk to work, new figures suggest, as the Government pushes commuters away from public transport.

As the lockdown is gradually lifted and people head back to work, the Government has announced emergency funding and measures to make the roads more cyclist and pedestrian-friendly, including plans for pop-up cycle lanes and distributing bike repair vouchers.

Temporary traffic lights are scheduled to be in place in Wells next week, as roadworks crews step up their return to work following the easing of the coronavirus lockdown.

The multi-way lights are due to be in action from Tuesday (May 19) to May 26 at the junction of Bath Road and Hawkers Lane.

There are isolated and disabled people in care homes who would be grateful for a tablet to help them keep in touch with relatives.

So Wells Coronavirus Network (WCN) asked our volunteers if they or someone they knew had an old tablet that was no longer needed.

New homes builder Persimmon, which is creating the Foxglove Heights development on the edge of Wells, will ramp up its operations after the Government eased restrictions on moving home earlier this week.

Persimmon's builders had already started upping tools on April 27, but on Friday its sales office will open its doors to potential customers.

Following a week of voting by the public, with many hundreds of suggestions, the Bishop's Palace in Wells has announced the results of the names for the new cygnets, which hatched at the beginning of May.

The palace's 24-hour Swan Cam and social media channels have been more popular than ever with the public during lockdown, and reached more than 130,000 people in the week that the cygnets first appeared.