Pub company Greene King has been confirmed as the owner of some of the land council bosses need to do all its planned work on a £4.4m roundabout revamp.

However, the Bury St Edmunds-based brewery and pub chain owns a mere two square metres of the land Norfolk County Council requires for the Heartsease roundabout work.

The county council began eight months of work to make changes to the busy Norwich junction last month.

Eastern Daily Press: Work on Heartsease roundaboutWork on Heartsease roundabout (Image: Denise Bradley, Newsquest)

However, it emerged - despite the work starting - that County Hall did not own two patches of land on either side of Harvey Lane required for the scheme.

Eastern Daily Press: The section marked with a 2 in the zoomed in box is the piece of land which belongs to Greene King. It has still not been established who owns the other two sections of landThe section marked with a 2 in the zoomed in box is the piece of land which belongs to Greene King. It has still not been established who owns the other two sections of land (Image: Norfolk County Council)

It has begun a process which would enable it to force landowners to sell the land, outside the former Lloyds Bank and the Heartsease pub.

Eastern Daily Press: A small patch of land needed for all the work on the Heartsease roundabout belongs to Greene KingA small patch of land needed for all the work on the Heartsease roundabout belongs to Greene King (Image: Denise Bradley)

Greene King, which owns the Heartsease pub has been confirmed as owning a small patch of the land near the pub.

But it is still unclear who owns the other sections, measuring 82m2 and 116.9m2.

The council has started a legal process known as a compulsory purchase order to force the owners, once they do become known, to sell up should negotiations to secure sales fail.

Eastern Daily Press: Graham Plant, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructureGraham Plant, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure (Image: Newsquest)

Graham Plant, the council's cabinet member for highways, infrastructure and transport, has insisted that the process will not delay the work, saying the need to purchase the land had been factored into the eight-month timescale for roadworks.

In the meantime, the council is not able to do any work in those particular sections of land.

And the council confirmed if land cannot be obtained it might not be able to provide a segregated cycle/footpath - proposed as an addition to the original scheme.

Changes being made to Heartsease roundabout include one-lane entry and exit, along with new pedestrian and cycle crossings.

Council bosses say it will make the roundabout safer, but the eight-month length of the work has sparked criticism, including from some local businesses, who say the work is hitting trade.