The businessman behind an ambitious plan to build a �30m third river crossing in Lowestoft has sent a personal plea to prime minister David Cameron urging him to support the scheme.

Peter Colby, who hails from Lowestoft and runs Peter Colby Commercials, has drawn up proposals for a new tidal barrage and road crossing over Lake Lothing designed to improve transport links and ease congestion in the town.

He says his scheme – based on a similar principle to a Dutch North Sea polder dam – would also help protect Lowestoft from flooding and open up large areas of dockside land for development.

In an effort to take his scheme forward, Mr Colby has sent a letter to No 10 Downing Street asking David Cameron to support his plans and help overcome 'stifling bureaucracy'.

In it, he explained to the prime minister how the barrage would help protect Lowestoft from flooding and regenerate 220 acres of land.

Mr Colby's letter states: 'I would like to bring your attention to a development we are proposing in Lowestoft which, we believe, would benefit the town, trade and environment.

'We propose a barrage. It is our aim to make this scheme work.

'We need your help because the bureaucracy we will encounter will be stifling.

'The cost of the scheme is about �30m, some of which can come from private investment (businesses that will benefit by the third crossing), but we need government financial support.

'Please Mr Cameron, will you help Lowestoft by turning the wheel?'

Copies of the letter have been sent to Waveney MP Peter Aldous, senior members of Waveney district and Suffolk county councils, Associated British Ports and the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership.

The road crossing, provided by lifting bridges on either side of a lock, would provide a continuous link with the A12.

It would join the Waveney Drive/Tom Crisp Way roundabout from the South Lowestoft Relief road in the south and stretch across Lake Lothing to the Rotterdam Road roundabout in the north. Northbound traffic would continue by Peto Way.