PROTESTERS have warned traffic accidents will soar and the numbers of traffic users will rocket if controversial plans for motorway service areas (MSAs) get the green light.

Communities in Hedgerley and Farnham Common have set up action groups to fight plans for car service areas at Mount Hill Farm and Burtley Wood which they say will have a devastating impact on the parish.

Beryl Coombes, Hedgerley parish cllr, said of the Mount Hill Farm plans: "We've already got traffic shooting past the place where the motorway will be built. Junction 2 is diabolical already. Both sites are ludicrous places for this sort of thing."

Precious green belt land will also be destroyed, she warned.

Hedgerley parish council is also backing campaigners against the proposed Burtley Wood service area about two miles away. It warns traffic movements on roads off Beaconsfield's junction two, also used by local traffic, will soar by 550 per cent if an MSA is built.

And 24,000 extra daily movements on top of the current 58,000 movements approaching the roundabout from both sides will lead to more accidents, they warn.

Colin Snowden, chairman of the A355 Action Group, said: "You can imagine that with all this volume of extra traffic, it's going to be an accident black spot."

Extra traffic will be generated on the A355 as the provision for shops and a 60-bed Travelodge and restaurant will see the offline site become a 'destination in its own right', he added. Acres of mature ancient woodland and green belt beauty spots will also be destroyed on the A355 site.

Both sites are among six being looked at – two on the M40, one M25 site and three M4 sites – by Government inspectors.

Permission for the Mount Hill Farm station was initially refused two years ago.

Developers launched an appeal and lost. But inspectors for the Secretary of State will now look all proposed sites together.

A public inquiry into Mount Hill Farm will be held at Gerrards Cross Community Centre in Packhorse Road, between 7pm and 9pm on June 18.

The Burtley Wood Inquiry will take place on July 16.