Helicopter helps police halt driver

A key route was closed after a police helicopter helped find a driver who failed to stop for officers.

The man was arrested after a chase between Bath and Shepton Mallet on Monday.

The A361 at Whitstone Hill in Pilton was shut as police brought the driver to a halt and recovered the vehicle.

A spokesperson from Avon and Somerset Police said: “A driver failed to stop for police in Stoke St Michael, Bath, at about 2.20pm this afternoon. Officers followed the vehicle towards Pilton with the support of the police helicopter.

“Police stopped the vehicle at about 2.35pm and a man has been arrested in connection with the incident. He remains in police custody at the time of writing and an investigation is ongoing. A temporary road closure was put in place”

The road closure caused delays for a period of time.

The mayor of Bath is counting the weeks until she can start filling her new Twitter feed with photographs from the city’s events.

Councillor Manda Rigby said: “We are in the middle of a website update, but in the interim we have launched ourselves onto Twitter as a way of instant communication about what we are doing.

“Usually it would be full of photos of events. The events are still happening, but we think you would all get very bored of photos of Zoom meetings, so for now fewer photos, more text!”

In a normal year, a mayor might expect to attend between 500 and 600 engagements – mainly responses to invitations from external organisations, hosting civic dignitaries or having parlour sessions for patronage groups, twinning associations and local volunteers.

This year, the mayor is on track to do the same number but under the current circumstances they have been self-generated ones – mainly remote link-ups with schools and care facilities, benches for informal chats in every ward in the city, interviewing interesting people to go on the website, and even singing ‘We Wish you a Wombling Merry Christmas’ on the Age UK organised singing bus at Christmas.

Cllr Rigby said: “I would love lots of likes and retweets. The link is https://twitter.com/mayorbath.”