Fears have been voiced that the combination of a road junction and the Harcombe Cross service station on the A38 below Haldon Hill is 'an accident waiting to happen'.

Chudleigh parish councillor steve evans said: 'I'm forever seeing HGVs parked on the Chudleigh slip road with their hazards flashing as the driver nips in to buy a packet of cigarettes or whatever.

'Then they pull out across the slip road and back on to the main road again. This is a very fast stretch of road. The junction is for vehicles leaving the A38, not joining it southbound, and yet that's exactly what is happening.'

Cllr Evans added: 'I've also had to avoid cars coming legitimately from the forecourt which have to cross the sliproad.

'Really, once a vehicle has left the A38 here, it shouldn't be allowed to re-join, but then where do they go? We don't want Chudleigh clogged up with traffic once more.'

Deputy leader of the district council, Cllr Ray Frost, told Chudleigh parish councillors at their meeting last week: 'We all mentioned very, very strongly at the time how dangerous it was,' referring to talks with the county council when redevelopment of the garage site was being discussed a couple of years ago.

'But because it already existed with a store on the site there was nothing that could be done about it.'

Chudleigh councillor Geoff Day said: 'Cars go faster than horses and carts – things change.'

A Highways Agency spokesman said: 'We have been made aware of the situation there with lorry drivers parking up, as have the police. We are very concerned on safety grounds and there is a clearway order in force on that stretch which forbids stopping.

'We are looking at other ways of getting the message across, probably through better signing, but unfortunately we can't make any changes before April, when the new financial year begins.'

The spokesman confirmed that enforcement remains a police issue, and that although not ideal, the pairing of the garage and the slip road was not unique, citing the case of a similar arrangement at Avonwick, just a few miles further along the A38.

He concluded: 'We would urge drivers not to stop on any slip roads, as it's both illegal and extremely dangerous. We would also hope that the garage owners would advise their customers.'

The manager of the service station – who did not want to give her name – said: 'I haven't noticed any problem with the junction,' and denied it was the responsibility of the garage to erect warning signs or to advise drivers where to park, adding: 'They should know the law, shouldn't they?'

At the time of going to press, the police road safety officer was unavailable for comment.