A NEW planning application is to be lodged in September for the controversial Chickerell link road after the plan lapsed last year.

Permission for the £1.2 million route from the Granby Industrial Estate to Charlestown lapsed in late 2001 because not all land had been bought within a five year limit.

Dorset County Council has outlined a new timetable with consultation and a report due to go to the council's planning committee in February 2003.

Members of the council's cabinet backed the new application with the £21,000 cost coming out of a £170,000 funding pot for the project in 2002-2003.

Environmental services director Miles Butler said: "Members of the committee are reminded of the importance of this scheme."

Coun Hilary Cox, the cabinet member with responsibility for the environment, said: "The cost of the scheme is mounting."

Coun Alan Havelock added that it was important to keep a watch on the scheme's progress and the money involved.

The one-mile-long link route is proposed to link the Granby with the B3157 Chickerell road at Charlestown.

Supporters claim it will provide the key to prosperity and growth in Weymouth, the Granby and a proposed leisure complex nearby but critics from Transport 2000 have attacked the plan as a waste of money with cash better spent on public transport in Weymouth.

County council chief executive David Jenkins apologised for allowing planning permission to lapse on the road last December.

The link road is included in the county council's structure plan and district council's local plan with the aim of connecting Weymouth and Chickerell, improving access to the Granby and cutting traffic in residential areas.

A completed footpath and cycleway on Hampshire Road was included on the original application but will also be included on the new application to 'regularise the planning situation'.

The county council is also in negotiations with landowners to obtain the eight plots of land needed for the scheme and a draft compulsory planning order is being prepared.

The final environmental assessment report is due to be completed by September before a new application is lodged later that month.