Radio Ninesprings

20/12/2025

This week’s edition of From the Potting Shed with Julie Haylock of Sandhurst Garden Design discusses festive house plants...

The Gardens Group

20/12/2025

Steve Bulley's BIG Question

4.2 million of these will be discarded after Christmas?

19/12/2025

*** CHRISTMAS NUMBER 1 ***

Congratulations to the wonderful Kylie Minogue - her first UK chart topper in more than two decades and the first original Christmas song to be the Christmas Number 1 in its year of release since East 17's Stay Another Day all the way back in 1994!

19/12/2025

Our competition is now closed congratulations to all of our winners!

It's your final chance to celebrate the run-up to Christmas with mince pies from Mortimers Bakery in Yeovil!

19/12/2025

Local News Friday 19th December

The number of inpatient beds at Crewkerne Community Hospital is to be halved from April next year. The reduction in bed spaces is part of a trial that will expand outpatient services, including chemotherapy, diagnostic tests, and specialist clinics.

A review is to be held into a project to make Bridgwater more pedestrian and cyclist-friendly, which local traders say has halved footfall in town. Hundreds of local people have signed a petition against the new one-way system at East Quay and Salmon Parade. But Cllr Mike Rigby from Somerset Council says early data from the review suggests the change to a one-way system is working.

The ringleader of an organised crime group operating across the South West has had a previous jail sentence extended. 30-year-old William Free from Taunton will now serve another six years behind bars after admitting to supplying co***ne, ketamine and cannabis while released under investigation.

Chard Methodist Church is offering local residents a free Christmas Day Lunch. The invitation is open to everyone, regardless of religious connection, and is particularly aimed at people who would otherwise spend Christmas Day alone.

The High Sheriff of Somerset, Janet Montgomery, has returned to her old school to wish the staff and children a Happy Christmas. While at North Cadbury Church of England Primary School, Mrs Montgomery shared in the Advent festivities and switched on the school’s Christmas lights.

Yeovil-based Screwfix is opening a new outlet in Minehead. Somerset Council has granted planning permission for the conversion of a vacant unit at Vennlands Business Park into a new Screwfix store. Screwfix says opening the store in Minehead will create up to 12 new jobs.

18/12/2025

18/12/2025

Dale Fender and the Beatmakers are a Yeovil band who still perform today after 60 years - on tonight’s Community Show, Dale Fender and his brother Bud Martin, look back to 1965 when they formed The Beatmakers, turned professional and toured Germany, performing at American Army bases and night clubs in Hamburg.

The Community Show on Radio Ninesprings with Steve Haigh
Every Thursday from 7 – 9pm

Tune in!
On 104.5FM
Online - radioninesprings dot com
On Amazon Smartspeaker: "Alexa, play Ninesprings"

18/12/2025

Here's another chance to celebrate the run-up to Christmas with mince pies from Mortimers Bakery in Yeovil!

It's our Christmas Competition for 2025, and we've got together with our friends at the Mortimers Bakery in Yeovil to give you the chance to win a dozen mince pies for your workmates or family and friends. You can submit your answer until 10 am today.

Click the link to enter.

Another chance to celebrate the run-up to Christmas with mince pies from Mortimers Bakery in Yeovil!

18/12/2025

Local News Thursday 18th December

Yeovil MP Adam Dance has warned that delays in ordering up to 30 new medium lift helicopters for the RAF with Leonardo of Yeovil is putting the future of Somerset’s defence industries at risk. He’s written to the Secretary of State for Defence, John Healey, asking for clarity on the Medium Lift Helicopter programme and the publication of the government’s Defence Investment Plan, which was promised before the end of the year. Mr Dance says the lack of a clear timetable for ordering the new Medium Lift Helicopter is causing concern about the future viability of the Leonardo factory in Yeovil.

Somerset's farmers are being urged to convert more cow manure into biogas to heat homes. The Green Gas Coalition is calling for the UK to increase its biomethane production and says ten times as much gas could be made from our cows' manure.

The community centre and café at the Red Brick Building in Glastonbury says it may have to close. They’ve issued the warning after being asked by Somerset Council to repay a grant of £2m towards redeveloping the former Morland’s factory site.

A social club in Chard says it has to double membership fees to cope with a series of large VAT bills. Perry Street Social Club in South Chard has launched a 'Save Our Club' campaign to help pay running costs.

Plans have been submitted to convert a former farm building in Chard into new homes. The owner of Highfield Farm on Perry Street in South Chard is seeking permission to adapt a redundant storage building into two residential dwellings.

A new visitor centre has opened at Ham Hill Country Park. Funded by the National Lottery and Wolfson Foundation, the centre is described as a place for learning and discovery. Together with a café, it includes a play space called the Hillfort Hideout and an outdoor seating area.

17/12/2025

Dale Fender and the Beatmakers are a Yeovil band who still perform today after 60 years ..
On tonight’s Community Show, Dale Fender and his brother Bud Martin, look back to 1965 when they formed the Beatmakers, turned professional and toured Germany, performing at American Army bases and night clubs in Hamburg.
Join Steve Haigh for some Yeovil musical memories on the Community Show tonight at 7 here on Radio Ninesprings.

17/12/2025

Adrian Dening's Stars Over Somerset
Monday 22nd to Sunday 28th December 2025

The evening of Monday 22nd sees the peak of the annual Ursid meteor shower. If you venture outside from 8pm, the Moon will have set below the horizon, so there will be no light pollution from our celestial neighbour. Look towards the north and try to locate Polaris, the pole star, which appears to be at the far end of the "little saucepan" Ursa Minor's "handle". The radiant point where the shooting stars appear to originate from is located below that, nearer the body of the saucepan.

The Ursids is classed as a "sparse" shower, producing up to ten meteors per hour and it is associated with the debris left behind by comet 8P/Tuttle, that last orbited close to the Sun back in 2021. Tuttle is known as a "short period comet" as it orbits the Sun every 13.6 years and the comet only travels out as far as Saturn, where most comets travel all the way to the outer reaches of the Solar System and their orbits take hundreds of years to complete.

Talking about the Moon and Saturn, if you go back outside around 8pm on Boxing Day 26th and look towards the south west, you will see a 39%-lit crescent Moon extremely close to Saturn.

Some very exciting news..........I have seen a top secret copy of Santa's travel plans for Christmas Day and I can reveal that he will be passing over the UK just after 6am on Christmas morning. If you look towards the west at 6.17am, his sleigh will appear as a bright point of light near planet Jupiter and the constellation of Gemini. He will pass almost directly overhead, before disappearing towards the east around 6.21am.

On that note, it just remains for me to wish all our listeners a peaceful and happy festive period, with hopefully some clear skies!

www.starsoversomerset.com
Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2025

17/12/2025

Celebrate the run-up to Christmas with mince pies from Mortimers Bakery in Yeovil!

It's our Christmas Competition for 2025, and we've got together with our friends at the Mortimers Bakery in Yeovil to give you the chance to win a dozen mince pies for your workmates or family and friends.

Click on the link to take part.

Celebrate the run-up to Christmas with mince pies from Mortimers Bakery in Yeovil!