Hopes raised of upgrade for A5 in Shropshire which could mean dual carriageway at last

John Hayes, minister of state for transport, has promised to commission a study into the 20-mile stretch of the A5 between Shrewsbury and Ruabon in North Wales. The findings will be reported within the next six months.

Mr Hayes has also pledged that a fresh look will be taken at plans for a Llanymynech and Pant bypass on the A483 between Oswestry and Welshpool.

The news has been greeted with delight by North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson, who said the study into the A5 could provide a "breakthrough" for plans to make the entire stretch between Shrewsbury and Ruabon a dual carriageway.

The only stretch of the route that is currently dualled is the Nesscliffe bypass which was built 10 years ago – despite the road being a major route for freight transport from across Britain and Europe.

People living in Llanymynech and Pant have called for a bypass to be built for several years. The project is the subject of the UK's longest running bypass campaign.

Mr Paterson, who met Mr Hayes on Wednesday to raise problems on the A5 in the north of the county, said: "The stretch of the A5 running north from Shrewsbury, through north Shropshire, linking up to the A483 into North Wales is the last stretch of Trans-European Transport Networks status road running between Felixstowe and Holyhead which has not been dualled.

"It is totally inadequate for the volume of traffic travelling from Ireland and the industrial areas of north east Wales. It is a cause of frequent congestion disruption and danger.

"I was extremely pleased that John Hayes was able to confirm that a high level study of the A5 corridor would take place which will report in six months' time.

"This could be the breakthrough that we need to see this issue resolved once and for all.

"Tragically, deaths and injuries affect my constituents disproportionately and it is imperative that this road is brought up to modern standards."

The most recent figures for accident statistics show that from 1997 to 2008 there were eight fatalities on the A5 from Dovaston, north of Nesscliffe, to Chirk – a distance of about 13-and-a-half miles. There were also 190 serious accidents and 197 slight accidents recorded.

Mr Paterson also gained assurances that the minister and Edwina Hart, his counterpart in the Welsh Assembly, will ask a Cross Border Road Forum to look at the issue as well as the Llanymynech and Pant bypass.

He said: "The Cross Border Road Forum is a new and imaginative initiative to help unlock the current impasse on local road schemes which cross into Wales.

"The problem with the bypass proposal is that 90 per cent of the road is in England with the misery caused by heavy traffic borne by constituents in north Shropshire, but the economic benefit is almost entirely Welsh as it lies on the A483, the main trunk route between Wrexham and Swansea."