The missing link in a relief road around Haywards Heath has been given the go-ahead, ending ten years of delays.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has agreed the final one-mile stretch of the bypass around the town.

The link will connect the two "hanging" ends of the road at Tylers Green, near Cuckfield, and the A272 at the Birch Hotel, giving the town its 2.3 mile southern bypass.

The move is subject to a planning agreement and is part of a deal which includes 225 houses being built on land south of the former St Francis Hospital.

It was first proposed by the National Health Service Executive which applied to build the homes on land it owned there.

Mid Sussex District Council's Development and Transport Committee agreed the plan but it was thrown into question when in April 2001 the Government's planning minister Nick Raynsford called the application in because the houses were to be built on a greenfield site.

At the time Peter Martin, chairman of the Development and Transport Committee, called the minister's decision "quite astonishing."

Mr Martin said: "The whole strategy of the adopted Haywards Heath Local Plan is dependent upon the completion of the Southern Relief Road."

After a public inquiry in September last year a 75-page report was submitted to Mr Prescott, and this week Mid Sussex District Council found out he had backed the plan.

In a letter to the council, Mr Prescott said: "There will be some harm to Anscombe Wood and to visual and residential amenity but the benefits of the development in terms of the release of housing land and the completion of the relief road outweigh these disadvantages."

Mr Prescott agreed the developer should foot the bill for the relief road, which is to be completed before work starts on the houses. There will also be more bus services near the site.

Management of the remaining half of Anscombe Wood is also to be moved into the hands of the district council.

Andrew MacNaughton, Cabinet member for the environment, said: "This is great news for the people of Haywards Heath, the majority of whom have supported the district council for the last ten years in their quest for a relief road.

"We are sorry the road has been delayed by the planning minister insisting on the public inquiry but the final outcome is very clear and could not be more supportive of the district council's case."

Permission for the development will come from the Government after papers have been signed and the issue is expected to be resolved within weeks.