Drivers on Oxford's Barton estate are being forced to wait 20 minutes during rush-hour to get on to the city's busiest roundabout.

Now Oxford City Council's Headington councillor, Alex Hollingsworth, says installing traffic lights at the five-exit Green Road roundabout has become an urgent priority.

Funeral directors are among those backing his appeal.

Residents in Headington and Barton have campaigned for years to get lights put on the roundabout.

Traffic is always busy because the roundabout is the gateway from Oxford's A40 ring road to the M40 and London, and the nearby Sandhills park-and-ride car park.

Cllr Hollingsworth said: "Drivers living on the Barton estate often have to wait 20 minutes every morning to get on to the roundabout.

"It is unreasonable to expect them to have to wait so long to get out onto the ring road, particularly if they have a long journey ahead of them.

"The bus companies in Oxford are also experiencing problems because drivers are finding it so hard to get off the estate."

Funeral services, whose corteges have to go round the roundabout to get to the crematorium in Bayswater Road, backed the call for traffic signals. Sandra Homewood, partner at S&R Childs Funeral Services in London Road, Headington, said: "If you have a cortege with a hearse and following cars, there is no way you can stick together, and the sooner traffic lights are brought in, the better.

"It is very distressing for families watching the coffin of their loved one, to see it disappear from view because a white van has pulled in behind the hearse."

Three years ago, the Highways Agency, which has responsibility for the A40 from Wolvercote to the M40 junction, carried out a survey which concluded the roundabout did not need traffic lights.

In April, the Highways Agency is due to hand responsibility for the road to the county council, and the authority has promised to review the survey's findings.

Cllr Hollingsworth urged county council officers to make the review a priority.

He said: "I had heard that the transfer from the Highways Agency was going to be delayed, and if it does go ahead in April that is good news.

"I hope the county council will look at the issue with a much more open mind than the Highways Agency.

"If traffic lights were installed on just three of the exits, this would make it much safer for drivers, particularly in the rush-hour."

Richard Dix, the county council's assistant director of highway management, said the authority had been encouraged by talks with the Highways Agency and hoped to take over responsibility for the roundabout by April.

He said: "We know local people are concerned about the roundabout, and we could re-examine the study carried out by the Highways Agency."