A key section of a popular Somerset walking and cycling route has been temporarily closed to allow diseased trees to be removed.

The Strawberry Line active travel route connects numerous communities to the south of the Mendip Hills national landscape (formerly area of outstanding natural beauty, or AONB), and will eventually run uninterrupted all the way from Clevedon to Shepton Mallet.

A key section of the route runs from the eastern edge of Wells to the Charlie Bingham food production campus at Dulcote Quarry – a route which has recently been extended beyond Dulcote as far as Churchill Batch Lane.

The Strawberry Line Association has announced that a section of this route will be closed until September 11 to allow for diseased ash trees to be removed and new trees to be planted in their place.

Ash dieback, also known as chalara, is caused by the fungus hyhmenoscyphus fraxineus, which originated in Asia.

The fungus kills between 90 and 98 per cent of all trees which it infects, and there is no treatment for it.

Symptoms of the disease include leaves wilting in the summer months and the trunk and branches turning black.

The Strawberry Line Association announced on its official Facebook page that two short sections of the Wells to Dulcote section (to the north of the busy A371 Bishop's Park Way) will be closed between 9am and 4pm on weekdays between Monday (September 2) and September 11.

A spokesman said: "Due to ash dieback on neighbouring land, two short sections of the Strawberry Line, outside Wells will be closed.

"A contractor is required to undertake emergency tree felling works in Wells alongside the Strawberry Line, necessitating the temporary closure due to the proximity of the felling to our path.

"Where practical, a diversion will be in place."

During the first phase of the tree felling, pedestrians and cyclists will be diverted along footpaths to the south of the A371, near the city's Screwfix outlet and north of the River Sheppey.

An additional section of the Strawberry Line will be delivered in the coming months along West Street as part of the new Lidl supermarket which is currently under construction.