A new relief road that will pave the way for major development in a west Suffolk town has been waved through by councillors.

Plans for the eastern relief road in Bury St Edmunds, which will connect Skyliner Way in Moreton Hall to Junction 45 (Rougham) of the A14, were approved by St Edmundsbury Borough Council on Thursday.

The £18 million road has to be built before a 500-home development on Moreton Hall and an extension of the Suffolk Business Park can proceed.

The road will have five roundabouts serving different landmarks and will improve the slip roads at Junction 45, as well as adding a new car park to serve the existing Rougham Tower Hill Museum.

Speaking after the meeting, panel chairman Jim Thorndyke said: “The slip roads at the moment are far too short, and we wanted to make sure they were lengthened to make that junction much safer than it is now.

“Everybody said it’s a good idea. It’s going to open up the industrial places in that area and it will also ease things at the Sainsbury’s roundabout by taking a lot of industrial traffic away. That can be a nightmare at times.”

Taylor Wimpey, which is behind the new housing development, will provide some funding, although more is needed after an application for £4.9 million of local pinch point funding from central government was turned down.

The plans were passed with a lengthy list of conditions, including a three-year time limit for the road’s completion.

At the same meeting, an outline for major development of Bury towards Fornham All Saints, known as the north west masterplan, was also given approval.

The outline application includes a new link road between Mildenhall Road and Tut Hill, provision for hundreds of new homes as well as a village centre and primary school.

Howard Quayle, from Fornham All Saints Parish Council, said the council largely agrees with the proposals but has four points of concern.

These are that no more than 900 homes are built, that the new link road is completed as early as possible and that slightly more land is used as agricultural rather than green space and that houses are restricted to three storeys.