Claim council has no plan B for controversial road

If approved, the new road would connect the Northern Distributor Road with the A47 at Easton, to the west of Norwich

A Conservative-led council has been criticised for not having a "plan B", with it set to pause plans for a controversial new road.

Earlier this year, Natural England changed rules protecting Barbastelle bats, which live on the route of the proposed £274m Norwich Western Link (NWL). It means Norfolk County Council would be unlikely to get a licence to build the road.

On Friday, the leader of the council, Kay Mason-Billig, said she had written to the government asking it to intervene, claiming the "goalposts" had been shifted.

However, Steve Morphew, leader of the council's Labour group, accused senior councillors of not taking a "blind bit of notice" to previous warnings.

"It was a good three years ago we were warning… there would be major stumbling blocks with this scheme and they needed a plan B," Mr Mophew said.

"And recently, as it's looked less and less likely that it was going to go forward, we needed an exit strategy, and we were urging them to negotiate an exit strategy with the government.

"But unfortunately [the council] hasn't taken a blind bit of notice of any of those calls, so they've put themselves in a difficult position and they've got nobody to blame but themselves."

'Impossible position'

If approved, the 3.9-mile (6.3km) road would connect the Northern Distributor Road, also known as Broadland Northway, with the A47 at Easton, to the west of Norwich.

The previous Conservative government promised £213m towards it.

However, Labour is currently reviewing all spending commitments and has already cancelled the £50m Vauxhall Roundabout upgrade planned for Great Yarmouth.

Graham Plant, Conservative cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure, said contingency plans for the NWL would have cost "similar amounts of money".

"We're in an impossible position and we need government intervention to resolve it positively for the people and businesses of Norfolk," he said.

"This new guidance from Natural England only came out in March of this year, and it came out at a time when we had put our planning application in.

"We're at an impasse. This is one government department against another. We've got the Department for Transport giving us £200m for a scheme which they saw in the outline business case as feasible."

Members of Norfolk County Council's cabinet are due to discuss the future of the road later this month, where councillors are expected to pause further work on the project.

A decision is expected to be announced in the government's spending review planned for the spring.