Imagine a world with no Lowestoft, no Great Yarmouth and no happy holidays at Hopton - this is the world according to Whitehall.

And Lords are leaping up and down about it.

Peers have launched a tirade against transport officials accusing them of indifference to East Anglia after they wiped a chunk of the east coast off one of their maps.

Lord Marlesford turned his fire on the Department for Transport in a parliamentary debate after discovering the omission in its blueprint for infrastructure.

He accused officials of ignoring Suffolk.

'There can be no bigger indicator of Whitehall indifference to those of us who live in East Anglia than that,' he said.

Labour's Lord Rosser joined the fray adding: 'I hope the department will realise that those two places still exist and manage to produce another map.'

Last night the Department for Transport said the omission of the Norfolk and Suffolk coastline from the congestion map was unintentional, adding: 'This in no way reflects the views of the Department or the importance of infrastructure across the whole of East Anglia.' .

Lord Marlesford criticised the last government, which he said had 'detrunked' the A12 north of Ipswich, and demoted it from the strategic network, saying the road, which stretches from the M25 on the outskirts of London to Lowestoft, should be part of England's strategic network.

This is particularly important because of plans to build one of the next nuclear power stations in Sizewell, he said.

He raised concerns that EDF, which is behind the project, has plans to build a short new road that would slash through the attractive Suffolk village of Farnham, and has proposed a huge lorry park south of Wickham Market, because the current road cannot take its lorries.

The Suffolk Preservation Society president said a four-village bypass around Marlesford, Little Glemham, Stratford St Andrew and Farnham, was urgently needed.

'It should be part of the upgrading of the A12 and be brought into the strategic road network,' he said.

The Suffolk peer added: 'It is extraordinary that my county of Suffolk does not have a place in the strategy at all. Indeed, if the minister opens her copy of the report at page 84, she will see that, in order to fit the map of England on to the page, the whole of the coastal area of Suffolk has been cut off. That is the most sensitive area of Suffolk. There can be no bigger indicator of Whitehall indifference to those of us who live in East Anglia than that.'

The DFT said: 'The Government is committed to transport investment that boosts the economy in all parts of Britain. For example, we are pressing forward with the £1.5bn development of the A14 and undertaking a study into improving the A47 and A12 between Peterborough, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. However, the case for retrunking the A12 north of Ipswich would need to be set out by the local highway authority and be supported by a strong economic rationale, before any decision could be made.'