THE campaign to improve safety at the notorious Washford Cross junction stepped up a gear on Wednesday with district councillors accusing their county colleagues of turning their backs on the district. Members of West Somerset Council gave unanimous support to calls led by both Williton and Watchet members, Cllrs Hugh Davies and David Banks, to put pressure on Somerset County Council to come up with the money for more than just "cosmetic measures" at the interchange. Although the council stopped short of pledging to put in its own money, members said it was time to "shame" the county into action and called for the authority to stop treating West Somerset as a poor relation to the Lib Dem strongholds of Yeovil and South Somerset. There was cross-party support for a re-worded motion calling on senior county council officers and the authority's highways portfolio holder Cllr Tony Shire to attend the next full council meeting and "discuss issues concerning Washford Cross with a mind to making improvements". Cllr Davies had originally called for the district to stump up its own money in grant aid to the county authority in a bid to get either traffic lights or a roundabout installed at the junction. He claimed a precedent had already been set when the district offered £400,000 to the West Somerset Community College, in Minehead, for educational purposes. But he was told the college cash pledge - made several years ago to enable the school to finance a new classroom - had been little more than a paper exercise at no cost to the council to enable the college to borrow money to pay for the work. Councillors also felt it was wrong for district council taxpayers to have to pay for work which was solely the responsibility of the county council. Cllr Simon Stokes told Wednesday's annual council meeting: "Statistically, we're not killing enough people for the county to do anything about it. "If we gave a grant to them now they would just sit back and let us pay for everything. "If we could lend them the money and ensure there was a mechanism in place to enable us to get the money back we could bully them into doing what they should be doing anyway and then I would be all for this." But Cllr Banks said the point of the original motion had not been to secure a cash pledge from the district council. He said: "The objective of this was to get it on the agenda. "We realise we are not talking about a cash grant. We realise there must be a period of discussion but highways will not speak to the parishes or the town council. "The purpose of this was to get you to look at it. "There have been lots of accidents. There have been lots of tragedies and all they can do is paint the road and put a bollard in. "Cllr Davies wants us to take this seriously. Lets all get involved. We're fed up being given the run around." Watchet Town Council has already passed a vote of no confidence in the county council over its stoic refusal to meet town councillors and discuss the Washford Cross intersection. New council leader and county councillor Cllr Christine Lawrence said she had spoken to highways staff and had been told more "small safety measures" would be carried out at the intersection and the impact of that work monitored before anything else was likely to be done. But Cllr Barbara Child said the county had already made it blatantly clear to her that there was nothing in its highways coffers for West Somerset. She said: "I have actually managed to pin them down and got them to admit we are the poor relations as far as highways funding is concerned. "I think they will turn their backs on us yet again. What they have done so far is a cosmetic exercise." Watchet member Cllr Tony Knight added: "It is time we shamed the county council into doing something for West Somerset and not just the Yeovil area." In the past the county council has said it will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the work already done at the junction before considering any further measures.
