A DESPERATE plea to reconsider plans to shut a well-used short-cut from New Bridge to Gulworthy was this week made by a Gunnislake woman, who lost her son in a fatal accident in the area 12 years ago.

Gillian Pengelly, of the Buccaneer Inn at Gunnislake, has collected nearly 1,500 signatures on a petition, objecting to Devon County Council's proposal to ban traffic from the one-way stretch of road between Newbridge and the main A390, just below the Tavistock Woodlands junction.

Mrs Pengelly said the accident in which her son Stephen died occurred outside Tavistock Woodlands Sawmill and had nothing to do with the road the council proposes to close. But she is worried the closure will increase traffic danger in the area.

She said: 'The flowers I maintain at the top of the short-cut is where the accident ended. I think the flowers make people take an even more cautious exit from the shortcut.'

Mrs Pengelly said she, and the hundreds of local people who have signed her petition, are worried that closing the short cut will have drastic knock-on effects on other areas.

She said it would encourage drivers caught behind slow moving vehicles travelling towards Tavistock to use the lane between the sawmill and the junction with the A390 near the Harvest Home pub. The steep road is narrow and barely wide enough for two-way traffic in places. Mrs Pengelly said the crossroads along this route had already claimed three lives to her knowledge — and the exit onto the main road was on a blind bend.

Mrs Pengelly said in addition, cars unable to pass slow-moving vehicles would cause a backlog of traffic across the single track Newbridge, through Gunnislake and further back into Cornwall, where the approach to the village was steep with a 30mph speed limit.

And she said frustrated drivers, having been stuck behind slow traffic for miles, would be tempted to take risks, putting people's lives at stake.

'If they close it there will be many more families knowing the devastation of the loss of a loved one in years to come,' she said.

'If this road closes, people will overtake on many dangerous alternative places.'

Mrs Pengelly feared closure of the short-cut, which had only seen 'minor shunts', would result in major accidents and fatalities on the winding, steep roads of the Tamar Valley.

Calstock Parish Council has also objected to the proposal. The council believes the closure would be 'detrimental to road safety and traffic management'.

A spokesman for Devon County Council said: 'We have had a substantial number of letters and e-mails regarding this proposal. We are still looking through them and we will reach a conclusion at the meeting on Friday.'

County traffic engineers say accident statistics in the area have revealed a problem and they have a statutory responsibility to address the issue — hence the proposed closure.

A decision on the proposal will be made at the West Devon highways and traffic orders committee meeting in Okehampton tomorrow (Friday).