Local news from the Chard and Ilminster News covering Chard and Ilminster, Crewkerne, South Somerset

8:42am Saturday 26th May 2012

Twelve town centres have been named as the first "Portas pilots", entitling them to funding and expert advice as they seek to regenerate high streets.

7:12am Saturday 26th May 2012

A man has died and three others were wounded after a shooting in a pub, police said.

5:46am Saturday 26th May 2012

Gay comic Julian Clary has likened the arguments over same-sex marriages to the suffragette struggle in the early 20th century, it has been reported.

2:58am Saturday 26th May 2012

Engelbert Humperdinck is flying the UK flag in the Eurovision Song Contest and hoping a prized gift from Elvis Presley will bring him luck.

2:58am Saturday 26th May 2012

Dr Who star Matt Smith hot footed it around Cardiff Bay carrying the Olympic flame on its latest leg in Wales.

2:58am Saturday 26th May 2012

Anti-cuts activists are planning to block roads and hold street parties as part of a campaign to "celebrate" resistance to the Government's austerity measures.

2:58am Saturday 26th May 2012

Britain is expected to bask in warm temperatures this weekend as the mild weather which has already made the UK hotter than parts of mainland Europe and Africa in the last few days continues.

2:58am Saturday 26th May 2012

Beleaguered Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt is under intense pressure after fresh disclosures at the Leveson Inquiry about his relationship with a senior News Corporation lobbyist.

12:07am Saturday 26th May 2012

The most popular areas for aspiring young professionals to snap up a home have been named, from Jesmond and Didsbury to Cardiff and Hove.

12:07am Saturday 26th May 2012

The Home Office is planning for a possible large increase in immigration from Greece and other European Union nations in response to the crisis in the euro, Theresa May has revealed.