RESIDENTS in a Suffolk village are celebrating after it emerged a new link road costing nearly £500,000 is set to go ahead.Campaigners in Capel St Mary have long been calling for a road to link Old London Road – on one side of the A12 – and the main centre of the village, which is the other side of the dual carriageway.

RESIDENTS in a Suffolk village are celebrating after it emerged a new link road costing nearly £500,000 is set to go ahead.

Campaigners in Capel St Mary have long been calling for a road to link Old London Road – on one side of the A12 – and the main centre of the village, which is the other side of the dual carriageway.

The Highways Agency has announced it has money available to fund the £420,000 scheme and will work with Suffolk County Council to construct the new road and close the gap in the central reservation.

Work on the scheme – which has been demanded by residents for a decade – could start during the 2003/04 financial year.

South Suffolk MP Tim Yeo said last night he hoped this time the scheme would go ahead.

He added his support to the campaign after the Highways Agency agreed to the scheme before but then had to pull out when no money was available.

Mr Yeo said: "We've been round this track before quite a few times. I would have hoped by now there would have been a firm commitment to do it next year."

Mr Yeo has promised to write to the Government minister responsible to reinforce this message.

At the moment Old London Road residents have to risk life and limb crossing the busy A12 trunk road during breaks in traffic via a gap in the central reservation and into Pound Lane on the other side.

Or they can drive several miles south to East Bergholt and back north again to get to the village shops, library and primary school.

The new link road will join Old London Road to the Capel St Mary underpass under the A12.