Author: Lesley Webb

Somerset Council libraries are looking for volunteers to help support this year’s Summer Reading Challenge, ‘Ready, Set, Read!’. 

The challenge, which runs across all Somerset libraries, aims to encourage children to read six books during the summer holidays, while also engaging in a host of fun events and activities, online or at their local library. 

In 2022, a total of 6595 children participated in the challenge and now Somerset libraries are looking for volunteers, aged 14 and over, to help this year’s challenge become another great success.

Volunteering for the Summer Reading Challenge offers an incredible opportunity to develop experience working with adults and children, develop organisation and communication skills, give back to the local community, and to share and encourage the love of reading with others. 

Darren Smart, Somerset Council’s Strategic Manager for Library Services, said: “Volunteers this year could find themselves helping register children to the challenge, designing activities and events, creating displays, promoting the challenge on social media, or running storytelling events outdoors with staff.  

“This is an ideal opportunity for anyone who wants to share their love of reading and their local library and share their skills with the next generation.” 

To apply for one of these roles and find out more about the opportunity, please go to: https://volunteering.somerset.gov.uk/src/.

The closing date for applications is Friday, 30 June 2023.

To find more volunteering opportunities within Somerset Council, go to https://assemblevolunteers.somerset.gov.uk/ or check out the new Facebook page: www.facebook.com/volunteeringatsomersetcouncil.

There will be a band of ringers visiting St. Petrocks on Saturday 27th May.

They will be ringing from about 11.30am until approximately 12.15pm.

Somerset Council is reminding residents that with the late spring bank holiday around the corner there will be a change to household waste collection days. Crews will be collecting all waste a day later during week beginning Monday 29 May. This includes recycling, refuse and garden collections. If your recycling and/or refuse is usually collected on a Monday, then it will be collected on a Tuesday, if your usual day is a Tuesday it will be collected on a Wednesday and so on. That includes collections that would usually take place on Friday 2 June taking place on Saturday 3 June. To help crews speed up collections, please present boxes, bags and bins by 7am on the day of collection, or the night before. With waste collections a day later a higher volume of waste is likely. Squashing, crushing and flattening waste can help to reduce the number of trips that teams need to make to empty their trucks, as well as creating more space in resident’s containers. All 16 recycling sites will be open as usual at weekends, 9am to 4pm. And, if opening Mondays is part of their normal opening pattern, they will be open on Bank Holiday Monday (29 May), from 9am to 6pm. For opening times and to find a full list of what can be recycled please visit: www.somerset.gov.uk/recycling-collections

The works are expected to commence on 31st May 2023 and last for 3 days to enable Wessex Water to renew stop tap.

The contractor has indicated that access for Emergency Services through the site is  not permitted on this occasion.

For any further information about this closure please contact Wessex water on 0345 600 4600 , quoting reference: ttro065745WS

Please note that should you require to view a closure which is more than two weeks ahead, you will need to register for free with www.One.Network