Plans to stop HGV traffic travelling through Stanton village have moved a step closer after councillors agreed to use powers that will enable a new link road to be built between industrial units and the A143.

Suffolk County Council’s cabinet agreed to use Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) powers to take ownership of a portion of Grove Lane whose owner is currently a mystery.

That will mean a link road connecting Grove Lane to the A143 can be established as part of work by Jaynic to develop 37 hectares of unused employment land at Shepherds Grove Industrial Estate.

That will ensure trucks can then connect to a new roundabout on the A143 without needing to travel through Stanton village itself.

County councillor Joanna Spicer, whose Blackbourn division includes Stanton, said the issue had been ‘front and foremost’ in her election manifesto for 30 years.

“Behind this seemingly quite small and technical decision around the Compulsory Purchase Order will be potentially one of the most massive highway and environmental improvements that we could be making in west Suffolk,” Cllr Spicer said.

“The local population of Stanton and the surrounding villages will all benefit from the ultimate road network that will hopefully follow this compulsory purchase.”

Cllr Spicer said some more work was needed but was at its most advanced stage for 16 or 17 years.

The idea of a link road was first mooted in the early 2000s when proposals for an Ikea distribution warehouse were being developed.

That ultimately never took off but the idea of a link road remained.

It is not clear who owns that current section of road, and it was hoped the lodging of the planning application for the industrial estate work would encourage the owner to come forward, but that did not happen.

Historically it was once part of a Second World War airfield access route, but while the Ministry of Defence has said it is continuing investigations it does not believe it is the land owner.

The compulsory purchase will effectively register the land as belonging to the council.

County council leader Matthew Hicks said Jaynic will not only undertake the link road work to connect with the spine road it is forming in the industrial estate, but would also underwrite the CPO costs to reduce the risks to the council.