FUNDING for the Studley bypass will not be forthcoming from the Government if the A435 remains a trunk road, it has been revealed.

A letter from the Government Office for the West Midlands to the West Midlands Local Government Association says because the bypass is a "non-core" route which could be "detrunked" then it would not be added to the programme of trunk road improvements.

However Warwickshire County Council officers have previously expressed doubts over whether the authority could ever raise the tens of millions of pounds needed if it was detrunked.

Residents from north-east Redditch, Wirehill and Sambourne packed Redditch Town Hall last week for a presentation by councillors and action group SERRAG, which supports a bypass route east of Studley.

And Redditch MP Jacqui Smith recently handed a petition organised by the group to transport minister Keith Hill. Ms Smith supports the action group, which claims a route west of Studley would blight houses near the route.

SERRAG chairman Brian Danks said: "We have always maintained the money is not available and that letter proves it as such. The door has been closed as far as the Studley bypass is concerned."

A spokesman for the original A435 by-pass action group, which supports proposals for a road west of Studley, said: "The road will have to be Government-funded without a doubt so we won't ever give up. It is not going to stop us.

"We shall just keep endeavouring to get the bypass back on the national roads programme because we don't want a detrunked road until we have the money in place."