Countryside campaigners in the South West are celebrating victory in their fight to save the Blackdown Hills from road improvements.

The government wants to convert the A303 into a dual carriageway from the M3 into the South West.

But Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said the Blackdown Hills, which lie between the A303 and Exeter, would be spared.

Instead, he is asking the Highways Agency to consider the feasibility of widening the A358 from Ilminster to the M5.

'Very relieved'

The Blackdown Hills, a protected Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, extend for 14 miles north of the A303.

Geoffrey Sworder of the Council for the Protection of Rural England, said: "We are very relieved.

Blackdown Hills: Safe from road improvements

"It's a lovely piece of countryside - dualling the road would not have been any good for wildlife."

Large swathes of countryside would have had to be have been lost if the road had been dualled because many parts of the road go through villages where dualling would have been impossible.

Tim Lovell, who has a snack van on the roadside, said: "We have a lot of wildlife round here, buzzards and deer.

"I don't think we want to lose all that just for the sake of speeding the road up."

But in the village of Rawridge, some villagers said that a dualled road would have been safer than the existing road.

Villager Sue Feehan, said: "I'm very disappointed. It will cost more lives.

"I think the government should be sued for any accidents from now on."