At the same time, Council officials have disclosed that new surveys for bats - which were the stumbling block that scuppered previous plans - are about to begin.

Reform leaders at Norfolk County Council already said they wanted to "get cracking" on revived plans for the road and have now shed new light on where it might go.

Tom Dickerson (Image: Norfolk County Council)

Tom Dickerson, cabinet member for highways and transport, revealed at a full council meeting that, following early stages of considering an alternative, it looks likely a route will have to cross the River Wensum on the A1067 Fakenham Road at Attlebridge and join the A47 at Wood Lane.

The bridge where the A1067 crosses the River Wensum at Attlebridge (Image: Google Street View)

That limitation will severely hinder options for where the road would go and means it would be further west from Norwich than the plans which were dropped.

Under the scrapped plans, a dual carriageway road would have crossed the river via a viaduct south of the Fakenham Road and north of Ringland, before joining the A47 at Wood Lane.

Previous plans for the Norwich Western Link road were withdrawn (Image: Norfolk County Council)

The........

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