THE Wellington and Wiveliscombe areas took a battering from rain and fierce winds over the weekend – and more is on the way.

Weather forecasters say conditions will ease before storms and gales return later this week.

Roads and fields were flooded on Saturday with the usual hotspots – Hemyock, Nynehead, Bradford on Tone, Tonedale and the A38 at Blackbird particularly affected.

Trees came down on some roads requiring the emergency services to attend and water gushing off saturated fields proved hazardous for motorists who ventured out.

Some 514 homes at Westford suffered a power cut at 2.20pm on Monday after a pole snapped in high winds. Electricity was restored to most within three hours but 75 homes had no power until 9.30pm. A building site at Tonedale with planning permission for nearly 100 homes resembled more of a lake. And a road beside Kingsmead School in Wiveliscombe was flooded but the 800-student school was not affected.

Somerset County Council’s highways team had its busiest weekend since the 2014 floods with 100 weather-related call-outs.

Sport was badly affected with no outdoor games on in the area. It means some football teams have not played for more than two months.

The prospects for this weekend are no better with warnings of more bad weather.

With fields saturated, more flooding could occur in coming days and the advice to motorists is to stay at home if their journey is not urgent.

The public has also been warned not to remove road closure signs. “They are there for a reason,” said a highways spokesman. “Driving through even a few inches of floodwater can be extremely dangerous and can invalidate your insurance – is it really worth the risk?”

See this week’s Wellington Weekly News for more flooding pictures from around the area.