OXFORD West and Abingdon MP Nicola Blackwood has said she will soon be meeting the Secretary of State for Transport to discuss the A34.

It comes after a lorry driver died following a crash last Friday as police cleared a dead badger from the road.

Conservative MP Ms Blackwood said she will be meeting Patrick McLoughlin early next month. “Last Friday’s appalling congestion on the A34, as well as the tragic accident that triggered it, only serves to underline once again the urgency of investment in the A34,” she said.

“That is why, though I welcome the steps agreed for improving Junction Nine and Milton Interchange, I will be taking local business and university representatives to meet with the Transport Secretary early next month to clearly demonstrate the economic case for further more strategic investment in the A34.”

Yesterday, the inquest into the death of lorry driver Jose Antonio Castro-Gonzalez was opened and adjourned at a date to be set. The 61-year-old, from Bedford, was killed after his HGV and the rear of another HGV collided at about 4.30am last Friday.

Oxfordshire Coroner Darren Salter said: “He was initially trapped but released and taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.

“There was a rolling road block on the A34 put in place to remove the carcass of a badger. But further investigations are to be taken into the circumstances.”