MORTGAGE consultant Andrew Whitmore is calling for dramatic changes to the A36 after the Government rejected his petition asking for the road to be redesigned.

His call follows a string of ten fatalities on the main road from Limpley Stoke to the A36/A303 junction at Codford, in the last five years including pregnant teacher Anna Kirsopp-Lewis, from Warminster, whose unborn baby also died.

Mr Whitmore said: “There was a triple fatality the week I moved into Black Dog Farm, with a teacher and her unborn baby and another driver being killed. I thought, if nobody else is going to something about it, I will.”

As well as the support of Dr Murrison, Mr Whitmore is hoping for further backing from Chapmanslade Parish Council.

His petition asking for the road to be re-designed was rejected by the Government in February, and now Mr Whitmore plans to re-submit it.

South West Wiltshire MP Dr Andrew Murrison is backing the campaign to improve safety on the A36 and plans to pressure the Government for changes because of the rising number of fatalities.

He said: “The residents are about to mount a significant campaign to get definitive changes to the stretch and I am supporting them.”

“I will continue to pressure the DfT but the feedback I am getting about road improvements does not augur well.

“I have heard nothing about improvements to the A36 and we are not going to get any improvements to the A303 for quite a number of years and that is bad news and a cause for concern.”

Mr Whitmore wants the middle lane to be removed at Black Dog Hill to prevent drivers from overtaking or speeding; improvements to the junction of the A36 with the A3098 sliproad exit at the top of the hill to increase safety and a roundabout at the junction of the A36 with Marsh Lane, just outside Standerwick.

An inquest is still to be held into the death of Mrs Kirsopp-Lewis, 34, and her unborn child, who both died on December 18, and the other driver Ian Barton, from Coombe Hay near Bath, who died on December 23.

Over the past five years, there have been ten fatalities on the A36 between the Dundas Aqueduct at Limpley Stoke and Codford, with 272 accidents being recorded, 43 of them serious and 219 slight.