Suffolk council agrees compulsory buy for A143 link road

A compulsory purchase order has been made to help create a link road to keep industrial estate lorries out of a the centre of a village.

Suffolk County Council has used its powers to take ownership of part of Grove Lane at Stanton, which is needed for a link road between the A143 and industrial units.

The council said the owner of that part of Grove Lane was unknown.

The order would effectively register the land as belonging to the council.

The proposed link road between Grove Lane and the A143 is part of work by developer Jaynic to develop 37 hectares of unused employment land at Shepherds Grove Industrial Estate, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The road is key to keeping trucks out of Stanton village, the council's Cabinet heard as it agreed to the compulsory purchase order (CPO).

Joanna Spicer, who represents Stanton on the council, said: "Behind this seemingly quite small and technical decision around the CPO will be potentially one of the most massive highway and environmental improvements that we could be making in west Suffolk."

The idea of a link road was first mooted in the early 2000s when proposals for an Ikea distribution warehouse were being developed, although the Ikea idea did not come to fruition.

It is not clear who owns that section of Grove Lane, and it was hoped the lodging of the planning application for the industrial estate would encourage the owner to come forward, but that did not happen.

Historically it was once part of a World War Two airfield access route, but while the Ministry of Defence has said it was continuing investigations it did not believe it was the landowner.

Council leader Matthew Hicks said Jaynic would underwrite the CPO costs to reduce the risks to the council.

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion please email [email protected]