Date agreed for Transport Under Secretary to see 'dangerous' A5 in Shropshire

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson has confirmed that Andrew Jones has agreed to meet him on May 27 to take a look at the road.

Mr Paterson has previously said the road has two of the most dangerous junctions in Shropshire – at Shotatton crossroads and Queens Head, near Oswestry. The A5 is a dual carriageway from the end of the M54 at Wellington to the western edge of Shrewsbury at Montford Bridge. It then becomes single lane, except for the Nesscliffe bypass, for the rest of its route through Shropshire and when it joins up with the A483 on the edge of Oswestry.

Mr Paterson hopes to persuade the secretary that the road north of Shrewsbury should be made a dual carriageway and will also press for a bypass for Llanymynech and Pant on the nearby A483 on the Shropshire/Powys border.

He said: " The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport has agreed to come to Shropshire on May 27. We haven't firmed up the details yet but we will start in Shrewsbury and then travel up the A5.

"Hopefully there I will also be able to take him along the A483 to see the problems at Pant and Llanymynech.

"These are two major trunk roads and important arterial roads. The stretch of A5 between Montford Bridge and the Welsh border is the only single carriageway stretch of road on the Trans-European Transport Network between Ireland and mainland Europe."

Mr Paterson has been campaigning for improvements to the A5 – particularly the stretch between the Nesscliffe bypass and the North Wales border – for almost 20 years.

The proposed Llanymynech and Pant bypass is in the Government's long term road improvement programme although it is currently marked as "on hold".