Campaigners have lost their fight to prevent maintenance of a major road being switched from the Highways Agency to Oxfordshire County Council.

Members of the A41 working party fear nothing more will be done to improve the dangerous stretch of the Bicester-Aylesbury road round the Blackthorn railway bridge -- an accident blackspot.

The working party, which represents villages in the area, wants traffic lights at the bridge to make it safer for people to turn out of the Marsh Gibbon and Blackthorn roads on to the A41. Both turns are close to the bridge, which partly obscures the vision of drivers on the side roads.

Working party chairman Michael Hall said: "We are disappointed responsibility for the A41 is being transferred to Oxfordshire County Council. There have been improvements to the road at the bridge but it is still dangerous."

Marjorie Read, Piddington Parish Council chairman, said: "We do not feel the county council will ever have enough money to do more improvements. We need the new 50mph limit on the A41 at the bridge extended by about a third of a mile to the Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire boundary. This would cover the turn to Piddington."

Mrs Read said residents also wanted better signs at the junction of the A41 and the Piddington road.

David Robertson, Oxfordshire executive member for transport and highways, said: "The county council will receive a grant from central Government to cover the annual maintenance costs. This is the last in a phased implementation programme of assuming responsibility for various major roads in Oxfordshire."

Colin Carritt, county highways engineer for the area, said the A41 money would be ring-fenced for a few years so it could not be spent elsewhere.

Mr Carritt added: "Later it will be spent as we see fit, with a priority for busy main roads like the A41."