A TREE suffering from brown rot had to be brought down in Weymouth, closing a road for several hours.

A third of the Horse Chestnut tree in the garden of a house in Radipole Lane, Radipole village, blew down on Sunday night because the disease caused it to become brittle.

Tree surgeon and owner of the Heritage Coast Tree Services company Steve Evans scaled the tree and took it down piece by piece yesterday morning.

A crane was used to lift and move the one-tonne tree segments.

The road was closed from 10am to 2pm and workers will be on site again today breaking up the rest of the tree.

Mark Taylor from Heritage Coast Tree Services said that after part of the tree was blown down, the rest was assessed and the decision was taken to cut the rest down.

He said: “It was an emergency thing so it had to be done.”