PART of a main road in West Somerset was closed on Wednesday (October 25) because of floodwater.

Somerset Council highways contractors installed temporary traffic lights to manage the situation on the A358 in Combe Florey.

A section of road under Tribble Bridge was flooded as heavy rainfall over the past few days saturated the ground and caused run off from nearby fields.

A council spokesperson urged motorists to ‘drive with caution’ when the using the affected road.

The spokesperson said: “It only takes 12 inches of water to move your car.”

It was the same stretch of A358 which last autumn was closed three times in the space of a matter of weeks when mudslides occurred from fields alongside it.

The mud also carried hundreds of tonnes of potatoes onto the road which had to be cleared by highways teams.

The council said it was working with farmers to improve agricultural practices to prevent such incidents happening again and to contribute to the cost of the clean-up operations.

Flood alerts were also issued by the Environment Agency for many of West Somerset’s rivers and streams.

It said river levels were forecast to rise at the Beggearn Huish river gauge as a result of heavy rainfall overnight.

Consequently, flooding of roads and farmland was possible.

Flooding was feared to affect the Horner Water, Rivers Aller and Washford, and the Hawkcombe, Monksilver, and Doniford streams and tributaries.

The agency said incident response staff were closely monitoring the situation.

It advised people to avoid using low lying footpaths near local watercourses and to plan driving routes to avoid low lying roads near rivers which may be flooded and to refer to local authority websites for local road closures.

Anybody in need of advice can call the 24-hour Floodline number 0345 988 1188.