Roads Minister visits Shropshire to see problems on A5 and A483.

It is the first time that cross border work will get place in an attempt to find a solution to safety worries on the two trunk roads.

Roads minister, John Hayes, is due to meet his Welsh Assembly counterpart, Ken Skates, next week. Mr Skates says he sees both roads as vital for the prosperity of Wales.

The A5 crosses the Welsh border at Chirk taking traffic into North Wales while the A483 is the main, north south road in the principality, crossing into England at Llanymynech.

Mr Hayes visited the villages of Pant and Llanymynech, split in two by the trunk road, to speak to local residents and councillors on his trip to Shropshire yesterday.

He saw at first hand the problems of crossing the busy A483 in the village of Pant where 14,000 vehicles a day use the road.

Councillor Arthur Walpole said: "The school in Pant is close to the road and in the centre of the village. Yet is is so dangerous for children and their parents to walk there. The pavements are incredibly narrow at points, particularly for pushchairs."

Residents told Mr Hayes of the heavy lorries that use the A483, including wagons carrying mobile homes to caravan sites in Mid Wales.

"These overhang the pavements they are so wide," Councillor Walpole said.

The roads minister was also told that the road surface of the A483 was in desperate need of renewing.

Villagers have been campaigning for a bypass for decades and now hope that it will find its way onto the next round of the Government's strategic roads scheme which begins in 2020.

Mr Hayes told both A5 and A483 campaigners that he was impressed with their arguments for improvements and said he would take their points back to his department.

"I can not make any promises and I have to look at all the pleas for schemes across the country. But I can promise that I will take everything you say on board."