PRESSURE is being put on highways bosses to improve safety at an A30 accident blackspot.

West Devon Borough Council is urging the highways authorities to use 'joined-up thinking' to find a solution to problems at the Merrymeet Roundabout near Whiddon Down — the scene of several serious and fatal accidents.

The Highways Agency favours an option to get rid of the roundabout — the first drivers encounter after leaving London via the motorway — and build a bridge over the top at a cost of over £4.5 million.

But residents in Whiddon Down want the plans to include a slip road onto the A30 from the A3124, which would prevent heavy goods lorries travelling through their village to join the duel carriageway at Merrymeet.

Strong arguments for a slip road were made by borough councillors last week, when they heard a presentation of the road improvement plans by highways agency consultants Parsons Brinkerhoff Infrastructure Ltd.

Although such a road would not come under the remit of the Highways Agency but that of Devon County Council, borough councillors and officers felt savings could be made by joining forces.

Planning chief Stephen Gill said: 'Everyone welcomes an improvement to the Merrymeet Roundabout but the junction to North Tawton (A3124) at Whiddon Down has been identified as a problem for a number of years.

'It seems to me nonsensical not to do them together when they are so close.'

Cllr Peter Hill said tourists would benefit from the A30 road scheme to improve safety and ease congestion, but not local residents.

'People living in this area have been shortchanged since the very day a decision was taken to put in a lorry route right up to Winkleigh,' he said.

'There has been complete blindness to this problem — is this what we must expect from our transport minister?'

He said faced with the knowledge that the agricultural industry was never going to be what it once was, the Government should be trying to help improve economic development in Devon.

'Transportation is very important for any alternative industry we have, so improving the road links is of major importance,' he said.

The Whiddon Down residents campaign has also been backed by their county councillor, Bill Cann.

Local service officer for Devon County Council, Mike Parnell, said the council would be working closely with the Highways Agency to come up with a solution.

A link to the A30 from the A3124 was first debated when the duel carriageway was built in the mid 1980s.

Mr Parnell said the executive committee of the county council would have to decide whether it was still required and if so, how far they were going to go with any scheme.

A new link and road widening is estimated to cost in the region of £1 million.