A FORMER town councillor is recovering in hospital after being cut from the wreckage of his car following a smash on the A36.

Bob Adam, 72, of Thornhill Road, Warminster, broke his arm, hip and heel when his blue Ford Escort collided with a silver Ford Focus on Friday.

Mr Adam stepped down as a Warminster councillor at the May 1 election.

The incident, which happened on Friday afternoon at the Knook Camp junction with the B390, closed the road for four hours. Fire crews from Warminster and Trowbridge needed hydraulic cutting equipment to free Mr Adam, who is now in Salisbury District Hospital.

His wife Angela, 58, was travelling with him in the car, but avoided serious injury. She is now recovering at home. The driver and passenger of the Ford Focus were from Australia and have now returned there after leaving hospital.

Mrs Adam said: "He is definitely on the mend. He has come out of intensive care, it's just a case of his bones healing now. It's going to take him a bit of time to recover, but he's a fighter." The collision is the latest in a string of incidents on the road in recent times. Stat-istics suggest motorists are three times as likely to have an accident on the A36 than on the average British road.

Last month, residents from Codford, Heytesbury, Knook and Upton Lovell started a campaign to upgrade the road.

Romy Wyeth, chairman of Codford Parish Council, said: "We will continue to have collisions on the road as long as it remains as it is. The plan will make a difference.

"Let's get it going as soon as possible. We do need to make sure of Government funding to make the road safe." Wiltshire County Council has drawn up a road improvement plan for the area, which is likely to cost between £8m and £10m.

A group called the A36/A350 Corridor Alliance have lodged an alternative proposal costing between £3.5m to £4m. The group is made up of bodies such as the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and Friends of the Earth.

Rosemary Marx, chairman of the CRPE's west Wilts group, said: "We all feel the county council are trying to take a huge hammer to crack a small nut. We have come up with a solution without creating a huge cutting through the hillside."

Their scheme would update the Chitterne junction, with traffic lights and straightening the sharp bend.

A spokesman for Wiltshire County Council expressed concerns about the scheme: "The main problem with the CPRE alternative is that it leaves in place the existing blind summit on the A36 at the B390 junction.

"Forward visibility at this location is inadequate and the CPRE alternative does not conform to Department of Transport standards in this respect."