THE Campaign for Better Transport has welcomed the Government’s decision to abandon the Stourport relief road scheme.

Richard George, the group's roads and climate campaigner, supported the move to reject a total of 21 projects across the country.

He said: “The Government is right to abandon these out-of-date road schemes, which would have been too expensive and done nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or rising traffic levels."

Mark Garnier, Wyre Forest’s Conservative Parliamentary spokesman, had been campaigning for the installation of the relief road.

On his website it states: “Residents in the southern part of Wyre Forest have, for too long, suffered under gridlock as a result of congestion in Stourport.

“For thirty years, local businesses and residents have been hoping for a relief road to be built around Stourport.

“I (Mark Garnier) recognise that this could be the one single development that will not only bring relief to thousands of people every day, but also secure the interests of the economy into the twenty first century.”

Members of Stourport Town Council recently described a motion calling for political action over the relief road as “naive”, “futile” and “unrealistic”.