COLCHESTER’S new A12 junction will remain a road to nowhere until developers start buying land at a former hospital.

The Gazette revealed last week how the £12million junction at Cuckoo Farm, which is set to open next spring, will not yet provide a direct route to the town as cash has not been found for the required extension of the Northern Approach Road.

The two public bodies that own the old Severalls Hospital site have since said they will pay towards the £9million needed to complete the link because it was key to the sale of land there for housing. But they said no money would be handed over until developers bought plots.

One of the two landlords, the Homes and Communities Agency, said all spending not agreed had been frozen by the Government.

The other, North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said it could do nothing until its land started to be sold.

Trust spokesman Ian Coulson-Thorpe said: “The trust and the Homes and Communities Agency have an existing agreement, as part of the planning consent, to contribute to the cost of the road and other infrastructure as part of the redevelopment of the Severalls site.

“The agreement to contribute towards the cost of the road is dependent on the successful sale of the site to a developer.

“Once the site is sold to a developer, the trust will meet its contractual obligations.”

Until the rest of the Northern 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.

There will be some congestion-busting impact as companies on the Severalls Industrial Estate will have easier access to the A12.

But wider benefits for drivers, plus the town’s proposed park and ride scheme, are dependent on the missing strip of road.

The communities agency and mental health trust are making a planning application to Colchester Council which, with the principle of development already accepted, would give potential buyers permission to start building homes at Severalls.