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A controversial proposal to slash the North Devon Link Road maintenance budget by £207,000 in a bid to cut costs has met with fierce opposition.

If the Devon County Council recommendations were to go ahead, the A361/A39 would lose its emergency telephones, two picnic areas and see the landscaping maintenance budget reduced.

The scheme is part of a package put to the county Environment, Economy and Culture Scrutiny Committee in an effort to save £1,789,000 on highway maintenance across Devon.

In addition to the A361 proposal, the report suggested a range of countywide measures including reducing the winter maintenance salting budget by £150,000, cutting the signs and fencing by £350,000 and other highway maintenance savings totalling £672,000.

But councillors were dubious and have asked for a "rethink," urging caution when the county Executive meets next month to consider the money-saving plans.

Local county councillor Rodney Cann said the council needed to think very seriously before heading down this route.

"The Link Road is a lifeline to North Devon and it is, in effect, our motorway," he said.

"I am urging them to rethink as you can't compare it with other routes in Devon because it has such a strategic role for our community."

Originally a nationally managed trunk road, the A361 was "de-trunked" to be locally run some years ago, but grant money following the handover runs out next year and the proposal is to bring expenditure down until it is in line with other county roads.

The £207,000 annual savings would include £150,000 spent on landscaping, mainly hedges and tree maintenance, plus £50,000 currently spent on two picnic sites [at Roundswell and Rackenford] and £7,000 on the emergency telephones, which the county says were used to make just £7 of calls in the past year.

But Mr Cann said it was "scary" they were talking of reducing maintenance since it was in effect still a trunk road, a major tourist route and a connection with North Cornwall.

"It was designed to these high standards because there was so much traffic and none of us can really be sure what the reductions would mean in practice," he said.

"There have been a number of accidents over the years and I would not like to see us return to those days."

The Executive meets next on Tuesday, February 6, and will consider the recommendations of the Scrutiny committee, which includes a proposal to consult North Devon District and parish councils over the emergency telephones to see if they would be willing to pay for them.