Buckinghamshire Council has scrapped its own plans to build a long-awaited relief road for Princes Risborough.

The authority’s Cabinet approved a recommendation to stop pursuing the planning application for the Princes Risborough Southern Road Link (PRSRL) and end all negotiations with Network Rail.

Officials have admitted the project has “stalled”, with the council no longer able to deliver the road on its own.

Instead, the council now expects it will have to be built by private developers as part of future housing projects in the Princes Risborough Expansion Area (PREA).

Councillors also backed a proposal to stop any further work linked to the 2021 Cabinet decision on land buying powers, a Compulsory Purchase Order, and a Side Roads Order.

However, it would continue using the £1.47 million capital budget already approved for ongoing work, including maintaining assets and updating transport modelling.

Leader of the council Steven Broadbent said that the decision was not a removal for the requirement of the road.

He reassured residents that if further development was to be brought to the area, that the developers would have to construct the road.

Cllr Robert Carington, the cabinet member for resources said: “[I am] conscious that this is a major matter for the people of Risborough, and surrounding wards and I know that a lot of work has been done on this.”

The authority’s Homes England funding agreement required progress within strict milestones, but the report admits the council has been unable to raise the extra money needed to cover the full delivery cost.

The Princes Risborough Expansion Area, which includes plans for around 2,500 new homes, roughly five per cent of Buckinghamshire’s projected growth to 2033, was designed to include a relief road easing congestion on the A4010.

Cllr Gary Hall the member for Princes Risborough, said at the meeting: “[The town] is quite severely affected by traffic jams that just weren’t there only a few years ago.

“Princes Risborough is a bottleneck along the A4010 and this relief road was proposed to alleviate that somewhat.

“The main thing we are worried about now and our residents have already started to say it, they are going to build the houses anyway and not build the road.

“The councils position is very, very firm that no road no house, and we cannot have a situation where developments come forward and more houses are built because the whole area will just come to a complete halt.”

Cabinet first approved the overall expansion plans in February 2021, setting out a preferred three-phase development strategy.

The council later applied for planning permission for the first section: a 750-metre single-carriageway link road, although plans reached an advanced stage permission was never granted.

In 2021 a Cabinet paper admitted the council could not afford to deliver the project.