Work is to start on a long-awaited road for Beccles which will remove heavy traffic from the town and boost the local economy.
Construction of the long-awaited Beccles Southern Relief Road is to begin in April as Suffolk County Council is due to take possession of the land.
It comes after they had a compulsory purchase order confirmed by the Secretary of State for Transport following a public enquiry.
The relief road will link the A145 London Road to Ellough to the south east of the town, providing faster access to Beccles Business Park and the Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft Enterprise Zone, which together with the B1127 Copland Way will form a southern and eastern bypass of Beccles.
Graham Catchpole, mayor of Beccles said: 'When it is completed, hopefully in 2018, it will enable us to start the process of restricting the flow of heavy goods vehicles throughout the town centre and make the shopping experience much more pleasant.
'It will significantly reduce all traffic flow and help the bottlenecks of Ingate and St George's Road.'
Work will start more than a year behind schedule after there were complications with purchasing the land.
A compulsory purchase order was needed to give the council the right to obtain the land.
Objections were made to that order and a public inquiry took place during the summer of last year.
The Secretary of State for Transport confirmed the compulsory purchase and side roads orders and construction for the £7m road can now go ahead.
Peter Aldous MP commented:'The road will open up a whole new dimension for our town and importantly make the Ellough Enterprise Zone much more attractive to businesses and boost employment opportunities.'
Mark Bee, county councillor for Beccles added: 'I am delighted that work has now begun after so long. It cannot come sooner enough for Beccles and Worlingham, which has for so long had to endure traffic congestion.'
The road is expected to take 18 months to build and is being funded with £5m from the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and £2m from Suffolk County Council.
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