Author: Lesley Webb

Our Winter Beach Clean and Litter Pick on Saturday 8th February 10.30am – 12noon, and we’d love you to join us.

Not been to one before? Here’s all you need to know…
– Meet at 10.30am on the slipway at West Street Beach. Wrap up warm, wear suitable footwear and gardening gloves. We’ll provide litter pickers and sacks.
– We’ll be picking up litter along the beach, along the coast path and around the town. After about an hour, all those taking part are invited to The Sanctuary for hot drinks and cake, after sorting what’s been collected.
– Come with friends or as a family group. We also look forward to welcoming Knights Templar School Eco Warriors! All under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

– Spread the word! You can find a pdf version of the poster attached to this email and you’ll also find info to share on our Facebook page ‘Plastic Free Communities in West Somerset’. We’d love it if you could help us promote the event and encourage people you know to get involved

Join our Steering Group 💚

Interested in helping us grow the campaign here in Watchet and plan for the next event? We’d love you to join our small friendly group of volunteers who meet alternate months for about an hour to keep things moving forward. Next meeting Tuesday 4 March, 7–8pm at The Sanctuary (Swain Street, opposite the Post Office). Do drop us an email if you’d like to join us.

Timberscombe Good Neighbours

Free Cream Tea

At The Old Dairy

Saturday 25^th January 2025

 3pm To 5pm

Please come along

This event is being hosted by Timberscombe Good Neighbours using a grant given to build community strength.

Everybody is welcome.

There will be an opportunity to meet with Victoria, our local organiser of Micro Providers, to discuss any support they may be able to give you.

If you don’t need her help  please come along just for the tea and chat!

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) is moving to Weather Warning status in central and southern England. This is in response to Storm Eowyn due to impact our network area this weekend and into next week.

If you are registered for our priority services, we would like to remind you that you can call 105 if you experience a loss of power and require support.

Please make sure you are prepared for the possible impact of this storm.

The following message from our Chief Fire Officer, Gavin Ellis provides the context as to why we are considering changes:

‘Last year, our crews responded to an average of 16 false alarms every day due to automatic fire alarms, placing an unnecessary burden on the Service’s resources and our ability to be ready and available for genuine emergencies.

In the last five years, we have been alerted to more than 55,000 automatic fire alarms, out of which just 42 needed the hose reel jet from one of our fire engines, which is less than 0.08%.’

We’re looking at how we can reduce the number of automatic fire alarms we attend to make our Service more efficient, and make sure our firefighters are able to respond to genuine emergencies.

More detailed information about the consultation, and a link to a public survey for feedback, is available on our website www.dsfire.gov.uk/about-us/AFA-consultation. There will also be opportunities to question and answer events.

We want to make absolutely clear to our communities that any change is only in our response to an automatic alert and we will always attend if someone has reported a sign of fire. We will also always attend single domestic properties, such as houses, or where there is a known night-time sleeping risk. We also have a number of high risk buildings where we will also maintain a response. Details of these can be found in our consultation document.