A PLAN is being drawn up to improve safety on the A420 between Oxford and Swindon, where a driver was killed on Sunday.

Vale of White Horse District Council leader Matthew Barber said an agreement was reached earlier this year to look at improvements.

This is vital as Vale district will get 20,500 new homes by 2031, the Conservative said.

It comes after a Swindon man in his 30s – who has yet to be named – was killed following a collision at about 3.50am on Sunday.

It happened between Buckland Road and the B4508 to Highworth, and involved a car and two lorries.

An inquest that will try to determine the circumstances around his death has yet to take place.

Mr Barber has high hopes for the memorandum of understanding to examine safety signed between Vale, Oxfordshire County Council and Swindon Borough Council.

Parish councils, including Shrivenham and Watchfield, have commissioned their own work on the A420, he said.

He said: “The A420 comes under a huge amount of pressure – it’s a very busy road and has a dangerous record in places.

“As a district council we are pressing the county council about the capacity of the A420.

“There are huge expansion plans east of Swindon and the Vale has housing pressures as well.

“We need to review the whole route, looking at capacity and at particular junctions to see what can be done to improve safety.”

Watchfield Parish Council’s Colin Bell said: “With all the new housing that is being planned now is a good time to do this.”

Data provided by Oxfordshire County Council showed on the two-mile stretch between Buckland Road and the B4508 there were 17 accidents in the past five years before Sunday’s smash.

Of those, 14 were slight, two serious and there was another death in 2012.

Rachael Jackson, 25, of Kidlington, died near Buckland after the van she was driving collided with a lorry on April 4 that year.

An inquest could not determine the exact circumstances of the crash.

For the whole A420 there were 21 fatal collisions involving 22 motorcyclists, drivers and pedestrians between 2002 and 2012, including Ms Jackson.

A week after her death, the same stretch of road was closed for several hours after a blue Toyota Yaris and a white Mitsubishi Canter collided, injuring two people.

In total there were 363 fatal, serious or minor crashes on the A420 between 2002 and 2012.

A county council spokesman said: “The council will be carrying out an investigation with Thames Valley Police to try to determine the cause of the accident.

“The county council will be developing a strategy in the coming months with the Vale council and Swindon Borough Council.”

South Swindon MP Robert Buckland said: “I do think it’s important to check the safety of the road and there needs to be a safe linking road from Swindon to the Oxford area.”