A MISSING stretch of road will severely limit the congestion-busting impact of Colchester’s new A12 junction, highways bosses have admitted.

The £12million junction, at Cuckoo Farm – a key to cut the town’s jams – is taking shape.

But the project relies on finding a further £9million to build the third section of the Northern Approach Road to link the junction to the town centre.

The plan is for motorists to come off the A12 and down to North Station via the road.

There will be a bus route running parallel to the road, leading from a park and ride car park at the junction.

But until the rest of the North Approach Road is built, drivers will have to come off at the junction and head into town via Axial Way, Severalls Lane and Ipswich Road.

The roads are already among the town’s most congested.

The junction will have some benefit because vans and lorries from the Severalls industrial estate will be able to use it to get on and off the A12, rather than adding to traffic on the Ipswich Road.

But drivers trying to get in and out of town will be better off using the Crown Interchange, as they do at present.

Louisa White, a Mile End resident, told yesterday’s Colchester 2020 transport meeting: “All this money has been spent on the junction, but really it is no use without the new road.

“The road is essential. We have had so much development in Mile End and we were promised the infrastructure to go with it, but as usual, we have been let down.”

Essex County Council officer Helen Ramsden said she accepted the junction was no good without the road.

She said Colchester would not be signposted at the new A12 exit until the Northern Approach Road was in place, to prevent drivers from ending up on a road to nowhere.

She added: “Two years ago, who would have thought we would have the junction? Now we do and we are moving in the right direction, even though the road is not ready.”

The original plan was for the junction and the last section of the North Approach Road to be built with cash from developers buying former NHS land earmarked for homes at Severalls Hospital.

When the recession put paid to that scheme, the county council won Government funding to pay only for the junction.

The hope was that, with part of the infrastructure in place, developers would be encouraged to return.

So far, no deal has been done and it is possible public money could be used for the road instead – although with the Government heavily in debt, that scheme is also in doubt.

Ms Ramsden said: “Essex County Council is working with the two landowners involved, the Homes and Communities and Agency and the mental health trust, to finalise funding.

“We are entering into difficult financial times and we are in the hands of these two bodies.”