PLANS for a long-awaited Stourport relief road have been scuppered because of a lack of Government money.

Guidance notes sent to the county's highways chiefs state that funding for major road building schemes will be "very difficult to come by."

Conservative district councillor for Stourport, June Salter, said she was "furious" that 30 years of campaigning to rid the town of congestion and gridlock had been ignored.

Head of Highways and Transportation, Paul Jameson, said the Government was earmarking future funding to schemes that had already been given the go-ahead but had not yet been built.

"We would be extremely lucky if we were given money for any major schemes in Worcestershire," said Mr Jameson, who admitted: "The strength of the indications in the guidance did take us by surprise."

Mr Jameson said the Government had also made it very clear that new roads should not be being built and that better use should be made of the existing network by introducing such measures as congestion charges and improving public transport.

The guidance notes are to assist the county in putting together the next local transport plan for 2006-11.

The principles of the plan are expected to be drawn up by March next year and the completed document has to be submitted to the Government by July, 2005.

Mr Jameson said: "The closer we are in what we put forward to what the Government wants to hear, the more chance we have of getting the funding.

He said there would be some sort of small-scale scheme for Stourport but this was expected to include measures such as traffic lights and lane changes.

Councillor Salter said: "We are being given the crumbs instead of the cake. I am fuming because we desperately need a relief road to ease congestion.

"There was one tiny accident in the Gilgal the other week. Fortunately, nobody was hurt but the whole town became gridlocked as a result."

She also feared the redevelopment of the British Sugar site and the Bond Worth Carpets site off Stourport's Gilgal could be jeopardised by the relief road not going ahead.

"The money that has been spent on consultation has been completely wasted - and it's tax payers' money," added Councillor Salter.