Active travel campaigners are calling for space for walkers alongside the A39 along the Polden Hills.

The ancient ridgeway along the Polden Hills, from Ashcott to Bawdrip, made by and for people on foot and droving animals, has become inaccessible to all but motor vehicles, claim local campaigners.

Walkers, horse-riders or mobility carriage-users are effectively excluded, and it is highly risky for anyone who dares cycle, they say.

While parts of Loxley Woods can be accessed on foot via a path, birds are inaudible to the driver, and shy muntjac deer are encountered mainly as roadkill.

The brave cycle commuter who attempts the direct route to Bridgwater from Glastonbury will find themselves at the head of a queue of delivery drivers, car commuters and road freighters, including some that cut across country from international shipping ports. The narrow, straight road suffers frequent crashes.

Susannah Clemence, of Low Traffic Glastonbury, recalls her horror and surprise at hearing from an American friend: "There aren't any footpaths, because nobody walks anywhere here (in California)".

"I never thought it could happen in this country," Susannah said.

"I told her that we Brits value striding through our historic landscape too much, never to hand the roads over completely to cars. It seems I was wrong."

The campaigners point out that when there is no separate footpath, it only takes a few speeding cars, vans in a hurry and oversized lorries to make a rural road unusable by active travel, even though we have the right to use it, are encouraged to do so, and want to.

"Give us the space to walk," said Susannah, "and we will."