THE notoriously dangerous A39 road - an accident blackspot that has seen two fatalities in just a few weeks - is set to miss out on vital funding for improvements.

The news coincides with an accident on Wednesday in which a motorcyclist was in collision with an heavy goods vehicle at East Quantoxhead.

It was the latest in a spate of crashes, including at least five serious accidents and two deaths, on the traffic-clogged A39 in recent months.

The twisty stretch between Bridgwater and Williton has to cope with ever-increasing traffic as holidaymakers head for Butlins and West Somerset and freight lorries arrive from London and the North.

But Somerset County Council's executive board agreed on Monday to bid for £17.5 million of Government funding to build a central Somerset 'strategic access improvement package' as part of the county's Local Transport Plan.

This puts the central Somerset scheme ahead of the West Somerset strategic access package.

Over the past year, the county environment department has assessed three bids for new strategic routes - and West Somerset and the A358 near Taunton have both lost out to central Somerset.

The county authority felt that West Somerset District Council had not come up with a clearly agreed strategy and the role and function of the A39 needed to be addressed with district council chiefs.

District council planning policy and rural regeneration development officer Trevor Shaw said the authority was disappointed to learn that it had lost out to central Somerset.

"This scheme has been something which we have worked very hard on over the past six months and transport portfolio holder Cllr Barbara Child had added a positive input to the bid and fed the county council information.

"However, the county council have to make some tough decisions with the three options available - it all boils down to the assessment and scoring procedure.

"We hope that this time next year there may be another round of bids, but the county is the transport authority and councillors chose the best one in their opinion."

l Police are appealing for witnesses to Wednesday's crash which happened between 3.15pm and 3.30pm to contact them on 01823 363516.