COUNCILLORS in a village near the M5 have called on highways bosses to fix a “dangerous” junction because the traffic lights appear to be confusing drivers.

The Ruishton Lane crossroads joins the village to the A358 leading south towards Ilminster and north towards Taunton, via junction 25 of the M5.

The lights here are allegedly structured in a way that vehicles leaving Ruishton Lane can have “near-misses” with southbound traffic, since motorists are led to believe both lanes are on green lights at the same time.

Ruishton and Thornfalcon Parish Council has called on Somerset Council (which is responsible for highways issues) to fix the lights to prevent serious crashes and ensure pedestrians using the nearby crossing are safe.

Parish council chairman Mel Mullins explained: “Numerous drivers coming out of Ruishton Lane have reported on the dangerous situation where the vehicle green signals, located on the outbound pedestrian phase of the junction heading towards Henlade, may be seen as a green signal for an opposing phase.

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“This is causing vehicles to continue through the junction whilst the Ruishton Lane approach has a vehicle green signal.

“The parish council raised this situation a couple of years ago when we were having regular meetings with Somerset County Council (now Somerset Council) with the upgrade of junction 25.

“We were told that the louvres on the pedestrian light could not be tilted any more. We also asked for yellow hatching.”

The redesign of junction 25 was completed in January 2021 at a cost of £19m, and included the delivery of the new Nexus 25 roundabout near the Taunton Gateway park and ride site.

Traffic in Ruishton and the surrounding villages is expected to grow in the coming years following the government’s cancellation of the A358 dualling scheme and local housing growth (including the prospect of 150 homes on Ruishton Lane itself).

Mr Mullins said: “I’ve done my own assessment and can confirm that the green is clearly visible on the lights in question at the A358 stop line, when Ruishton Lane is signalled to progress/empty.

“We have requested a site visit with the local Somerset councillor and an appropriate officer to see the ‘green’ light seen by all our residents that have experienced a near-miss at this junction.

“Let’s hope that it does not take a serious accident before something is done.”

Somerset Council’s traffic management and road safety team carried out an initial assessment in late-2024, arguing that the lights could not be altered further and blaming the near-misses on driver error.

A spokesman stated at the time: “The pedestrian crossing has louvres attached to the traffic signal heads. These louvres are tilted down to shield the vehicle green signal from vehicles waiting at an opposing stop line.

“This has been inspected and we can confirm the vehicle green signal cannot be seen from the opposing stop line, and from our inspections you do not start to see the vehicle green until you are fully over the stop line.

“Unfortunately, the signal heads cannot be pointed in another direction, as this would affect the red signal for vehicles approaching the crossing. We cannot remove the signal heads altogether as this will remove the pedestrian facility.

“If the Ruishton arm has a green signal and vehicles are still travelling through the junction, this will be down to driver behaviour and is an enforcement issue which can only be dealt with by the police.”

Following this initial response to the parish council, the highways team said it would revisit the issue and communicate any changes which could be made.

A spokesman said: “We have previously carried out measures to limit the view of the green light, and recently we have been capturing video footage to see what the root of the continuing problem might be that the community has raised.

“The traffic control team will review this and take a look at what might be done to reduce these concerns.

“Once we have something concrete to share, we will be in contact with the parish council to discuss further.”