Accident blackspot junction needs improving as matter of priority

IMPROVEMENTS are needed to Culmhead Crossroads, which is considered to be one of the worst accident blackspots on the Blackdown Hills.
I have had a close look at the junction after concern was expressed by local resident Robin Morris, who has frequently experienced cars crashing into, and sometimes through, his garden hedge, and who has also narrowly avoided being knocked down.
Matters came to a head for Mr Morris with a recent crash at the junction between two Audi cars in which some of the occupants suffered serious injuries.
Now, I am asking highways officials to improve the warning signs and rumble strips on the approaches to the junction, and I also want to see changes to the white lining which would make it safer for vehicles crossing the junction.
I have looked into the accident statistics for this junction going back over 10 years and there have been 17 people injured in that time, not including the recent crash involving the Audis.
On top of these, there have been many more minor accidents where, fortunately, people have escaped injury.
So, it is quite clear that there is a problem which needs to be addressed at this junction and I have therefore made some suggestions which I hope will improve safety.
If this was a more major road, then I am sure its accident statistics would have seen something done about the situation long ago.
I think people living and working on the Blackdown Hills deserve to see the county council putting just as much effort into making their roads safer as they do in the urban areas.

• The photograph shows me (left) at Culmhead crossroads with resident Robin Morris and some of the wreckage left from the recent double-Audi car crash at the junction.

Speak up now to help save Blagdon Hill School from closure

THE governors of Blagdon Hill Primary School continue to have my full support in their fight to save the village school from closure under Somerset County Council spending cuts.
I visited the school again yesterday with Mark Formosa, who is the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Taunton Deane and who is passionate about the need to maintain small schools.
We are urgently calling for everybody in the local community to send their comments to the county council before the public consultation process ends on Friday, June 6.
Interestingly, Mark discovered by coincidence that as a youngster he went to the same school in Cornwall as Blagdon’s chairman of governors, Jonathan Langdon.
The county council say they are talking about the quality of education in small rural schools - but we all know they are really interested in cutting money from a budget they have mismanaged despite doubling our Council Tax in 10 years.
Now, rural residents are being threatened with paying the price of the county’s blundering through the closure of village schools not just here on the Blackdowns, but across many areas of Somerset.
Blagdon Hill provides quality education for the children who attend it, and the small class sizes mean pupils can receive a high ratio of one-to-one attention from their teachers.
Pupils receive excellent sports tuition, every child goes swimming every week of every term, every child plays a musical instrument, there is a computer in class for every two pupils rather than a once-a-week session in an IT suite, and children with special needs are able to make huge progress in such an environment.
All this is reflected in Ofsted inspection reports which rate the school and its teaching environment as good, good, good.
Yet, the county council are contemplating closing Blagdon Hill School and they are already putting off potential pupils by not telling parents moving to the area that the school is there.
I was extremely impressed by the strength of local feelings which came out of the recent open meeting and drop-in sessions, which I think rather took the county council by surprise.
They were gravely mistaken if they thought Blagdon Hill residents would be a soft touch, and I hope that if enough people put sufficiently robust arguments to them before the close of consultation on Friday, then we may have a chance of stopping this closure.
It does not make sense to be closing any school at a time when schools in Taunton are already over-subscribed and we face thousands more homes being built in the town with a huge influx of new residents and their children.

• The photograph outside Blagdon Hill Primary School shows (left to right) acting head teacher David Hawkins, chairman of governors Jonathan Langdon, Mark Formosa, parent-governor Jayne Simpson, and Blackdown ward Deane Councillor John Thorne.