Residents have lost their battle for safety improvements at a 'dangerous' crossroads in Oxford, writes Alison Bartlett.

They had hoped to persuade the county council to use land awaiting development to straighten the staggered junction where Marston Ferry Road and Moreton Road meet Banbury Road.

Members of the Moreton Road Residents' Association fear a serious accident as motorists cut across each other at the crossing. They had hoped that two empty houses on the corner of Banbury Road and Marston Ferry Road could be demolished and some of the land used to alter the road layout.

A planning application for eight houses and 11 flats on the site has been renewed and will be considered at a public inquiry, but a decision is not expected for several months.

Residents' association chairman Brian Hitch said: "We feel it is a pity the opportunity wasn't taken to improve the crossroads by straightening them out or making the indications for left and right turns clearer. "From a driver's point of view, there is a very complicated diagram telling you which lane to get into when you are travelling west from Marston Ferry Road into Moreton Road, which appears too late when you are at the wheel to take in properly.

"It is extremely dangerous if someone mistakenly gets into the wrong lane."

County council area engineer Colin Carritt said: "In view of the huge cost involved in acquiring land and levelling buildings, it is not justifiable to alter road layouts when signals are already in operation." But he added: "We are not blind to looking at new ideas, where road markings can be im- proved."