ENERGY company EDF could face pressure to deliver road improvements to make Williton more pedestrian friendly and reduce traffic in the village centre.

The company, which is behind plans for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, wants to site a 310-space park and ride scheme on land close to Mamsey House residential home in Williton.

The facility would be used to ferry workers to and from Hinkley during the construction of the proposed development.

But EDF representatives, who gave a presentation to Williton Parish Council this week, were told by some councillors that they hoped the company would fund a long awaited inner relief road as a spin-off.

The council has yet to reach a collective decision on how it views EDF's proposals, which are currently in the second stage of consultation.

But the company has dropped controversial plans for an accommodation hostel for 200 workers in Williton, which formed part of its initial consultation.

The idea of an inner relief road, running from the junction of North Street and Long Street to the other side of Mamsey House on the A39, was first mooted around a decade ago.

Last year the parish council earmarked £1,000 towards the cost of a feasibility study, after giving their support in principle to the construction of the road.

The work was set to be commissioned by West Somerset Council as part of its role within the Williton Regeneration Forum but was put on hold after it was said it could be looked at by EDF under transportation studies being carried out for the Hinkley development.

However, EDF representative Paul Hannifin told Monday's meeting that no assessment had been carried out of an inner relief road option.

He said the work undertaken by the company had only provided base line data and it would not be possible to look in detail at the possibility of a relief road by the consultation deadline of October 4.

District council chairman Cllr Eddie May, who represents Williton, said he would prefer to see the park and ride scheme built on the former lorry park at Smithyard Lane, near the notorious Washford Cross junction.

He said he hoped using the existing brownfield site, which was already well screened, would mean EDF funding the cost - estimated at £500,000 several years ago - of installing a roundabout at the junction.

His views were shared by Cllr Bill Vaughan, who said the Smithyard Lane site could provide a lasting legacy for local people by being used as a market area or for recreation when EDF had no further use for it.

Mr Hannifin pledged the site - originally discounted because EDF wanted Williton to gain the maximum benefit from any development - would be looked at again, although much would depend on whether it was available, was big enough and could attract people from the right areas.

He questioned whether councillors were suggesting it simply because they wanted a roundabout built at the junction or whether they wanted the park and ride to be detached from Williton.

But Cllr Diane Hooper said she would prefer to see the land near Mamsey House developed and warned that the Smithyard Lane site housed a number of existing businesses.

"I think the Williton site could be tied in with getting the inner relief road," she said.

And Cllr Ian Aldridge claimed Williton was looking a gift horse in the mouth and should grab the offer of a park and ride behind Mamsey House with both hands.

"The benefits are staring us in the face," he said.

"The park and ride could become a transport hub in the future and we are always talking about not having enough car parking in the village.

"Can't we start to think more positively about this and see if we can get the inner relief road."

Cllr Aldridge said the feasibility should have been carried out a year ago and the council should push for it to be undertaken soon.

BRidgwater-based EDF spokesman David Eccles told the meeting that the A39 currently carried a huge amount of traffic and the park and ride scheme would add very little.

He said the expected 316 trips in and out of the site daily would be timed to avoid peak traffic movements.

It would be compulsory for construction workers to use the park and ride as there would be very little parking available on the Hinkley site itself during construction of the power station.

The long term future use of the site earmarked for the park and ride is unclear as EDF will be expected to return to its original use - agriculture in the case of the Mamsey land.

Councillors are expected to agree a collective view on the EDF proposals at a meeting at the end of September.