Frustrated motorists have been reassured a council is trying to bring a much-needed £18m relief road to their town in the next five years - amid concerns residents feel 'in limbo' at a lack of progress.
Ian Parkes, transport planner at Norfolk County Council, said the Attleborough relief road - which would link the A11 London Road and Old Buckenham Road - was 'clearly a requirement with the housing growth in the town'.
He said the council is looking at loaning money to housing development promotion company Ptarmigan Land, which is the promoter of a scheme to add another 4,000 homes to the market town.
At the earliest the road could be built is within four to five years, he said, as the development of any new road would take time to design and build.
But if a loan can't be agreed, drivers may need to wait until the developer has sold some of the new homes it has a built - a process which could take many more years.
'The important thing to bear in mind is that it's a requirement for growth in that area,' said Mr Parkes after a consultation began this week into a series of proposed traffic improvements in and around Attleborough.
'The road will be built. It's absolutely essential that road is delivered to make the whole growth stack up. It is definitely going to be delivered.'
However Attleborough mayor Jeremy Burton said the town council and residents are still waiting for answers about the future of the link road.
'At the moment we're in limbo,' he said.
At a consultation event at Attleborough Town Hall on Tuesday, Mr Parkes and his colleagues revealed ideas for using £4.5m from the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership's Local Growth Fund to make traffic improvements around the town.
They include a plan to make Surrogate Street two-way to improve traffic flow and Mr Parkes said the proposals were positively received by residents.
But Mr Burton any improvements would be 'quite cosmetic' without the relief road.
'The real improvement will come from the relief road - that's what we're lobbying for,' he said.
'The town centre proposals are all well and good but they are a small piece of the jigsaw when you're looking at the larger benefits this relief road will bring.'
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