A section of Shropshire’s A5 has been the scene of more than 50 deaths since the case for it being made into a dual carriageway was thrown out.

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson has called on the Government to make improving the A5 near Oswestry a priority.

He says the cost of accidents on the route north of Shrewsbury over the years would have covered the cost of the work.

Mr Paterson said new figures showed that since 1992 there had been 53 deaths, 244 serious injury accidents and 939 slight injury accidents on the stretch of the A5 from Montford Bridge to the Welsh border.

He said: “Those accidents have cost £175 million to the taxpayer. The road could have been improved for that money.

“I raised this issue in Parliament 12 years ago this week and we are still waiting for improvements to the A5. It is ridiculous.”

Mr Paterson has written to transport minister Lord Adonis calling for action.

The move comes after the MP met with Highways Agency bosses last week and learned the dualling of the route was not on the Government’s priority list, known as the DASTS review.

In the letter he pointed out the A5 was the only stretch of the Trans European Network road between Felixstowe and Holyhead not dualled.

Mr Paterson wrote: “It is now totally inadequate for the volume of traffic travelling from Ireland and the industrial areas of North East Wales.”