A NEW road in Woodbridge is to be named after a much-loved councillor who died last year.Suffolk Coastal District Council had objected to a request for a new road serving more than 30 houses off Haugh Lane, Woodbridge, to be given the full name of Anni Healey.

A NEW road in Woodbridge is to be named after a much-loved councillor who died last year.

Suffolk Coastal District Council had objected to a request for a new road serving more than 30 houses off Haugh Lane, Woodbridge, to be given the full name of Anni Healey.

Officers objected to the use of both a first name and a surname on the road sign - but now they have relented and agreed that it can be called Anni Healey Close.

Mrs Healey, of Burkitt Road, Woodbridge, was a former mayor of Woodbridge, a former district council chairman and a town councillor.

She set up the River Deben Association, was a governor of the Seckford Foundation and of Amberfield School and represented the Liberal Democrats. She died from cancer in 2004, aged 60 and on her 34th wedding anniversary.

Mrs Healey was a popular councillor who was well known for her forthright views and her passion for the town. The town council wanted a new road to be named after her and councillors were dismayed when they ran into difficulties with the district council.

Mac Miles, a town councillor, said: ''The district council have not allowed Christian names but we stuck to our guns and said it should be Anni Healey. We felt that Healey Close could be anything and we particularly wanted Anni. At Melton Park there is a Thomas Churchyard Close.''

Cllr Cliff Cocker said a ''war of attrition'' had been waged. The town council spent several weeks seeking permission and after further debate councillors were told they had won their case.

Her husband David Healey, a retired Woodbridge GP, said: ''I am so pleased that Woodbridge is remembering her in this way. I am also very pleased and grateful to the town council and pleased that the district council has eventually agreed to it.”