The Old Frome Road, near Shepton Mallet, is set to be closed for 19 days from next week so dangerous trees can be removed.

From Monday (July 26) to August 13, the road is set to be shut between the hours of 9.15am and 4pm.

The part of Old Frome Road that will be closed will be the 800m at the bottom, Waterlip end, from the junction with Bolter's Lane to the junction with Long Cross Bottom.

The closure has been put in place so tree surgeons can remove trees infected by ash dieback disease.

Chalara dieback of ash, or ash dieback, is a disease of ash trees caused by a fungus called Hymenoscyphus fraxineus.

Once a tree is infected, in most of the cases the tree's health will decline and often succumb to secondary fungal infection.

As ash trees succumb to the disease and slowly die, they can drop limbs and branches, collapse or fall.

The disease is now present in all counties of England. Experience in Europe suggests that the majority of ash trees in woodlands infected with the disease will decline and die.

A number of woodlands in the Shepton Mallet area have been affected by the disease, with the footpaths at the Somerset Wildlife Trust nature reserves at Harridge Woods and Edford Wood having been previously closed for safety reasons.