PLANS to build a £10 million link road from the former MG Rover Longbridge plant to the M42 in Hopwood have failed to secure funding under a 10-year Government programme.

Proposals for the Longbridge Link Road, which is expected to reduce congestion and provide quick access to the area's new business park, has not been approved by the Department of Transport.

The plans involve destroying green belt land between Hopwood and Cofton Hackett and have been fiercely opposed by Bromsgrove District Council, which believes widening Longbridge Lane would be more beneficial.

Alvechurch councillor June Griffiths said the news had to be good for the people of Hopwood, who would be most affected by the link road.

"I know what it's like when it happens, we have got the Alvechurch bypass which feeds to the M42 and there are always queues on the one piece of single track road between the Redditch bypass system and that dual carriageway -- I know what it's like to live like that," she said.

"As a percentage of the Longbridge site is in Bromsgrove, we are keen to see the site used for employment opportunities and maybe some affordable housing.

"But we cannot see the need to put a link road across countryside and through a village."

The link road is included as a scheme that will be considered by the Government for approval in the next three years, once further work has been satisfactorily completed.