The £251m Norwich Western Link has been described as "the elephant in the room" over a new climate change strategy unveiled by the council that wants to build the road.

Norfolk County Council revealed the new strategy as part of its target to achieve net zero carbon emissions within its estate by the end of the decade.

The strategy includes measures such as swapping street lighting bulbs to LED ones, switching its car fleet to electric vehicles and retrofitting properties to make them more energy efficient.

Eastern Daily Press: A visualisation of how the Norwich Western Link would lookA visualisation of how the Norwich Western Link would look (Image: Norfolk County Council)

But, at a council meeting where the strategy was debated, critics of the Norwich Western Link questioned how a net zero approach meshed with plans to build a new road for vehicles.

Eastern Daily Press: Labour county councillor Maxine WebbLabour county councillor Maxine Webb

Maxine Webb, Labour county councillor said of the strategy: "I feel there is an elephant in the room. There's no mention in here of the Western Link."

The county council is waiting to hear if the government will approve the business case and bankroll 85pc of the price tag for the 3.9-mile road, which would link the Northern Distributor Road to the A47 west of Norwich.

Eastern Daily Press: Tom McCabe, Norfolk County Council head of paid serviceTom McCabe, Norfolk County Council head of paid service (Image: Supplied)

Tom McCabe, head of paid service at County Hall, said: "Counterintuitively, one of the things the Western Link does is drops the number of vehicle kilometres, because it provides a more convenient route for a lot of traffic."

READ MORE: £251m price tag for Norwich Western Link as bill soars

The strategy will next go to the Conservative-controlled cabinet.

Eastern Daily Press: Conservative county councillor Chris DawsonConservative county councillor Chris Dawson (Image: Norfolk Conservatives)

But Tory councillor Chris Dawson said: "There's a significant body of people who would question the Green agenda generally and some who would take exception to it."

And Mr Dawson said the council report introducing the strategy should not have stated "there can be no doubt that human activity is causing climate change".

He said: "There are people who would take exception to that, so I do not think that is a substantive statement to make."