Someone could be killed before desperately needed traffic lights are put in place at a dangerous Oswestry road junction, a councillor has claimed.

Former mayor Councillor Don Aldridge added his voice to calls for lights at the Salop Road/Middleton Road junction.

Current mayor Councillor Gareth Jones wants county council leader Malcolm Pate to come to Oswestry to explain delays to the lights’ installation.

They are still not in the work programme despite twice being placed in the county’s roads budget, town councillors said at a meeting of the development control committee last night.

The meeting heard it was a cost-cutting exercise to avoid paying the £200,000 cost of the lights. The county council was due to start the work this summer but it was revealed in April the scheme would be delayed.

At the time, a county council spokeswoman said the design would be finalised this year enabling construction to start next year if funding was available.

Councillor Jones said that, despite being a former professional driver he now avoided the junction because he thought it too dangerous.

He said he had no idea how pedestrians and people in wheelchairs negotiated the junction on their way to the nearby medical centre and two schools.

And Councillor Aldridge said: “Are they waiting for someone to be killed before they put the traffic lights in? That is my fear.”

Hundreds of motorists emerge from Middleton Road and Roft Street onto Salop Road, the main route into the town centre, every day and the scheme to install traffic lights was agreed last year. A consultation last year found widespread public support for the scheme.