Cabinet Minister Hazel Blears could find herself embroiled in a decision not to install traffic lights at Oswestry’s “most dangerous” junction.

Oswestry Town Council is to lodge a formal complaint with Shropshire Council over the county authority’s decision – and inform the Government Ombudsman and Mrs Blears, Communities and Local Government Secretary, of its concerns.

At a town council meeting yesterday, members, who heard the council cannot complain to the ombudsman itself, agreed to help individuals who wanted to object.

Shropshire County Council had said work could start on installing traffic lights at the Salop Road/Middleton Road junction early this year. But in a letter to the town council in March, the new Shropshire Council said the scheme was being put on hold until a decision on where to site a new supermarket in Oswestry is made.

Martin Allard, Shropshire Council head of traffic and safety, said the scheme was in the draft programme for the coming year.

But the setback was met with fury at the meeting.

Councilllor Gareth Jones said he watched a woman in her 70s struggle to cross the road yesterday and said he now drove around the town to avoid using the junction.

“It has to be the most dangerous junction in Shropshire and I want to know how the decision not to go ahead with the traffic lights was made,” he said.

He said a formal complaint would take time and he wanted the ombudsman and secretary of state involved. Councillors agreed to make a template available in the Guildhall for individuals who wished to complain to the ombudsman.