A PLAN to improve safety and cut noise on one of Swindon's main roads is set to receive council backing.

Government road authority the Highways Agency produced a 26-point plan for the A417/419 in response to public demand.

The road, which connects Swindon with Cirencester and Gloucester and links the M4 and M5, has long been the subject of controversy.

Earlier this year, after the latest in a series of fatal accidents, Wiltshire coroner David Masters invoked a rarely used procedure to alert the Government to the dangers faced by people walking along verges at the sides of carriageways.

And villagers in Blunsdon have been campaigning for decades for a bypass to relieve them of the traffic that blights their community.

Other people living alongside stretches surfaced with concrete have complained of excessive noise, even going so far as to stage a walking protest at a crossing.

The Highways Agency strategy will be discussed by the council's Transport, Environment and Neighbourhood Services Commission when it meets in the Civic Offices tomorrow at 7pm.

Officials urge members to give especially strong backing to a number of points in the plan, including:

Altering several junctions with other roads to make them safer.

Providing safe crossings at various points.

Improving road signs, making them more easily visible.

Making safer the junction of the road with M4 Junction 15.

Working in partnership with the Highways Agency to calm or restrict traffic on minor roads opening onto the A417/419.