A councillor has said requests to put extra barriers on the Chirk bypass having been ‘falling on deaf ears’.

Terry Evans, Wrexham councillor for Chirk South, said that councillors have been requesting to put better or extra barriers on the bridge that carries the A5 between Halton and Gledrid.

It comes after an accident on the evening of Monday, June 19 where a woman was trapped in her car after crashing into the barriers on the bypass. Fire crews from Chirk and Oswestry attended the scene which saw firefighters using specialist equipment to cut the woman free from the vehicle, who was then treated by paramedics from North Wales Ambulance.

The public were initially told the road would be closed for two hours, this then increased to 36 hours for repair to the damage until eventually Councillor Evans said repairs would take place on Friday.

“They didn’t tell me whether it would be this Friday or the Friday after, it’s a nightmare,” said Cllr Evans.

“We have been asking for over 10 years for another barrier on the bridge. It’s common sense to put barriers there, but our requests have been falling on deaf ears. It was a big mistake moving the barriers in the first place, if something hits the bridge now it could cause major damage. We’ve had many accidents on that stretch of road in the past, my fear is the next accident could be a car with a family in it.”

Councillor Frank Hemmings, Wrexham councillor for Chirk North and chairman of Chirk Town Council, said: “There are plans for temporary barriers to be put in place, but the engineers and materials for it are currently in London helping out with the incidents down there, so I think people need to bear that in mind and be patient.

“”People are not happy with the traffic through Chirk. We need to find other ways to divert traffic when the road is closed, but the chaos is not helped by the Gledrid roundabout works.”

Cllr Evans said there are talks between the Welsh Minister and North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson about changing the road into a trunk road, but no plans have been officially announced.