VILLAGERS of Great Blakenham street can no longer use their garages after an access route was taken away. For 50 years tenants of the former cement works houses in Chapel Lane have cut through a road off the B1113 to park their cars in their back garden.

VILLAGERS of Great Blakenham street can no longer use their garages after an access route was taken away.

For 50 years tenants of the former cement works houses in Chapel Lane have cut through a road off the B1113 to park their cars in their back garden.

But they were up in arms after a letter from a solicitor arrived out of the blue revealing the route will close on July 1.

Carol Scales, 43, who only put a garage up a fortnight ago, said tenants are seriously worried.

"We are part of a four car family and we wouldn't be able to park out the front because the road is too dangerous.

"Besides if we all park our cars there the council is likely to put double yellow lines out."

The route was part of the former Blue Circle cement works site, now owned by Onslow Suffolk Limited.

Barbara Dawson, 69, who has lived in Chapel Lane for the past 30 years, said: "We have always used the entrance gates to get through to the back of our houses.

"We have built our own garages and we have a caravan out the back. We are so worried because we don't know where to park our cars, you can see how dangerous the road is.

"We can't park our cars out the front because it is too close to the bend so it could cause a major accident.

"If the area is closed and built on, if they have to do it well, things have to progress.

"But the area out the back could be an empty space for years, maybe six to ten years and that could be my life-time."

Bizarrely London based solicitors Evans Dodd sent a letter on behalf of the owners in November last year asking residents to quit using the land marked in red on an enclosed map.

But the red line circled the residents' entire homes, which if put into practice meant they couldn't even go out of the grounds.

Cliff Dawson, 69, said: "It means then we go out we won't be able to get back in, so we may as well not come back."

No one at Onslow Suffolk Limited was available for comment.