The long-awaited relief road fortraffic-clogged western Colchester is back on the cards.

But the plans may have a sting in the tail in the shape of 650 new homes.

O and H Holdings, owner of the former 150-acre Stanway Pit, is expected to submit an application to Colchester Council for the first stage of Stanway western bypass in the next few days.

The road - due to stretch off the A12 to the west of London Road and through Tollgate - has been long-anticipated by Stanway residents fed-up with traffic queues stretching past their homes in London Road, Blackberry Road and Warren Lane.

But the newest plan is expected to have with it an application for 650 new homes, too.

The original scheme, submitted in June 1997, allowed for 500 homes but agreement could not be reached between O and H Holdings and adjacent landowners over who would fund the road. It is hoped the extra 150 homes will offset the cost.

Christina Edwards, chairman of Stanway Parish Council, said she could not comment until she had seen the latest plan, but said the road was needed.

She said traffic queues, especially lorries using Warren Lane for Bellhouse Pit, were a daily occurence.

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