Chard residents will be “left in limbo” for months or even years over the fate of a promised relief road.

The Chard eastern relief road is intended to complement the delivery of new homes to the south and east of the town.

The need for it was identified when South Somerset District Council's Local Plan was published in 2015. To date, not a single metre has been built, despite numerous new housing developments being approved.

A new report laying out options for how to proceed was expected to come before the council’s area west committee in July but was subsequently pushed back to give officers more time to complete it.

But officers have now admitted the report is still not ready, describing it as “a work in progress”.

The relief road will stretch from the A358 Tatworth Road to the A30 Crewkerne Road, taking pressure off the existing ‘Convent Link’ junction where these two roads meet in the town centre.

The council envisioned the road coming forward as part of housing developments within the Chard Eastern Development Area.

Starting from the south, the road will begin at a new roundabout on the A358 and cross the B3162 Forton Road to the east of the existing houses.

It will then move north around the back of the Lordleaze Hoteland join up with the A30 to the east of a new research and development facility for Numatic.

From there, improvements will be made to the existing roads on Oaklands Avenue and Touches Lane, with a new road cutting across Chaffcombe Lane and rejoining the A358 near the junction with Thorndun Park Drive.

David Bell, chairman of the Chard Area Resilience Group, said the fine details for the route remained “shrouded in mystery” when he addressed the Area West committee in Chard on Wednesday evening (October 19).

He said: “Local residents are extremely concerned. It threatens to devalue, not improve, residential amenity and will have a large environmental impact.”

He added that the A358 was likely to be “overwhelmed by stormwater” if plans for the first stage of the road were approved.

Peter Paddon, the council’s acting director for place and recovery, said the delivery of the road remained a key element of the Local Plan.

However, he added that little action could be taken in the remaining five months of the council’s life before it was replaced by the unitary Somerset Council.

Councillor Dave Bulmer described the Local Plan as being “almost dead”.

Councillor Sue Osborne added: "It does concern me that Chard is going to be left in limbo. We have a Local Plan which didn’t work because the phasing of the development area didn’t come forward as it should have done."