CALLS have been made for a full review of safety measures included in a controversial garage redevelopment plan following the death of a woman of the A39.

A plan to overhaul Greenway Garage was approved last week after it was previously deferred twice over concerns about road safety.

The plans were awarded planning permission by Sedgemoor District Council on Tuesday, February 13 – just days before a 35-year-old woman died after a crash near the garage site.

Councillor Mike Solomon, chairman of Wembdon Parish Council, which still objects to the proposals, said: “We made our case as strong as we could to the development committee last Tuesday that we thought the proposal was inadequate, but we were overridden.

“There have been two other accidents there in very recent history so it is not like it’s (the crash) a surprise, which is the worst bit of it.

“It is a dangerous piece of road and a red route because of its history. The garage is going to be there forever and it is the main route to Hinkley Point C. We can’t ignore the point that’s a project of national importance.

Bridgwater Mercury:

“If we are going to do things along the road then, regardless of cost, it has to be safe. Highways at Somerset County Council really need to review this entirely, this is about peoples’ lives.”

He says proposals for a new ‘ghost island’ for traffic turning into the garage are insufficient and says a new “solid” junction would be a better option.

The garage, which is currently closed, will be demolished and replaced with a new filling station, a car wash, sales building and forecourt and a Subway sandwich bar which Councillor Solomon says will attract more people to the site.

Amendments to the planning application have been made and cars will enter the site from the front of the garage instead of Skimmerton Lane.

The parish council has described the A39’s junction with Skimmerton Lane as an “accident blackspot.”

A spokesman for Somerset County Council said: “We are always sorry to hear about collisions on our roads but it would not be appropriate to speculate about the cause of this incident until the police have completed their investigations and all the facts are known.

"The garage redevelopment was deferred to allow the developer more time to redesign the access and achieve the safest possible arrangement. A separate scheme to reduce the speed limit along this stretch of road to 40mph is in the final stages and could be implemented by late spring, subject to final approval.”

A 35-year-old woman, from Bridgwater, died in hospital following the two-car crash on Saturday night (February 17).

The collision, involving a Subaru Impreza and a Ford KA, happened on the Quantock Road, near Greenway Garage, at around 10pm.

Bridgwater Mercury:

Four people were taken to hospital but the woman, who was a passenger in the Ford KA, died at Southmead Hospital in Bristol on Tuesday, February 20.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said: "We’d still like to hear from anyone who was in the Quantock Road area at the time of the incident, who may have information which could help our enquiries."

If you are able to help, call 101 and give the call handler the reference number 5218/036792.

Firefighters from Nether Stowey, Bridgwater and Taunton attended the scene and four people had to freed from the vehicles using hydraulic cutting equipment before being taken to hospital via land and air ambulance.