I have been working closely with Chard Carnival Committee on the recent carnival.

It was great to see so many entries taking part in this year’s Children’s Carnival and the evening carnival. It takes hours of work and thousands of pounds to create some of the entries that we saw.

There were 68 entries in this year’s carnival which I believe makes Chard Carnival the biggest carnival outside of the county circuit which is something we should all be proud of.

It was lovely to see and talk to so many familiar faces who were all happy to see this tradition back on our streets, The collection was an amazing £4287.97 and this was collected in coin, via QR codes on the website and for the first time we had collectors using contactless card readers, a big thank you to everyone who donated.

I am now working with the Town Team on their upcoming events the first being the Halloween event which takes place on Monday 31 October in Chard Town Centre between 6pm and 8pm.

Wristbands to take part in the trick or treating are £2 each and available from Emery’s News, Barron’s, Kelly Leigh Dance Studio & Chard Guildhall.

This is a popular event and I hope to see many of you there, I have my fingers crossed for good weather.

We are currently preparing and repairing the town's Christmas lights ready for the big switch-on which will take place on Saturday 26 November, full details of these events can be found on the Town Team's Facebook page.

Somerset County Council, NHS Somerset and Somerset Parent Carer Forum are inviting families as well as school leads, education, and health professionals to help shape the future of Special Educational Needs and/or Disability in Somerset.

The partnership is currently in the process of developing a Somerset SEND strategy for the next three years. This will outline the focus areas and action points that will inform us to develop our services, to find out more please visit the County Council website.

Somerset has saved more than 130,000 tonnes of carbon last year, Overall, Somerset recycled and reused 149,980 tonnes, pushing its recycling rate up from 52.4 per cent to 56.2 per cent, the highest it has ever been. That equates to saving 133,000 tonnes of carbon saved – the same as taking 51,409 cars off the road for a year – and is up 10,000 tonnes on the previous year’s figures.

Tonnages of plastics have soared to 5,771, up from 4,359, thanks in large part to the inclusion of plastic pots, tubs and trays in Recycle More kerbside collections. An impressive 97.2 per cent of material stayed in the UK to be turned into new products and packaging, including 99.4 per cent of plastics.

These impressive figures are down to the excellent kerbside sorting by local residents. The more materials are correctly sorted into the right container, the less contaminated our recycling is and the easier it is to get recycled closer to home.