The 30-year plan to build a road linking Sutton's two main routes is dead after council officers followed Government recommendations to kill the scheme.

The strategy committee consigned the A24A217 link road project first mooted in 1973 to the dustbin at its meeting on Monday.

Officers pushed for the committee to follow the recommendations of a Government planning inspector, who proposed the council ditch the plan to join the two roads at North Cheam.

The inspector's alternative of an access route from the A217 to the Kimpton industrial estate will be adopted, in a bid to exploit the surrounding land's potential to boost employment a fundamental rationale for the link road.

According to borough environment chief Tom Jeffrey, a detailed traffic survey carried out by council consultants Ove Arup proved the final nail in the project's coffin after it found the scheme would be a long-term car magnet.

He said short-term benefits in the shape of relief to Gander Green Lane and Sutton Common Road residents who have seen their routes overrun with traffic to and from the estate would disappear eventually.

Mr Jeffrey added: "Over time, the experience is if you construct a new road, it attracts traffic that would not have been there in the first place."

This, he said, chimed with the findings of the inspector, who carried out a review of council proposals to revise its Unitary Development Plan (UDP) its basic statement of planning principles last year.

Strategy committee environment spokesman Councillor Colin Hall said to dissent from the inspector would have ended up with the council up in a pitched battle with the Government.

He said: "To do anything else would inevitably involve us in a lengthy public inquiry and would delay several major schemes in the area including the re-siting and upgrading of the civic amenity site something we urgently need."

The access road should now be included in the revised UDP, which could be adopted by next March, though its inclusion does not commit the council to build the new route.

Several issues remain unresolved, notably Tesco's aspirations to extend its Cheam Park Farm store.

The supermarket giant had struck a deal with the council last July to fund the link road in exchange for a strip of land off the A217 onto which to expand, but this was rejected by the inspector. And Coun Hall stressed traffic problems in Gander Green Lane and Sutton Common Road still need to be addressed.

July 10, 2002 10:30