PLANS for a vital congestion- busting road in Whiteley that looked set for approval from John Prescott have broken down.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has revealed that it will not change legislation to force landowners standing in the way of the scheme to sell.

Now the future of the whole project looks in jeopardy - leaving beleaguered drivers who are travelling in and out of the mini-town at peak times facing massive queues.

Furious house builders and firms that handed over £5.2m to fund the scheme are also demanding to know what will become of their cash.

For 16 years the link road has been stalled because landowners will only sell highways chiefs 12 plots which the road crosses at open market rate and not at agricultural prices.

That could mean the difference between the disputed land costing £1m and £100,000 per plot.

However, a letter from John Prescott's Office to Winchester MP Mark Oaten revealed that "the principle of compensating displaced owners on the basis of the open market should be retained".

The exasperated MP said: "I frankly don't know where this goes next because the secre-tary of state won't do anything and nor can the county council.

"We have a crazy situation where the residents were told years ago that this would be built and so far nothing has been done."

But Hampshire County Council executive member for transport Keith Estlin said he was still "reasonably confident" that the scheme would go ahead in five years' time.

He said: "We have had conformation that they are not going to help us build Whiteley Way. That's the bad news. The good news is that Whiteley operates pretty effectively without the link road and that will bring down the cost of the land from what it was thought it would be years ago when people believed Whiteley would grind to a halt without the new road."

He added that the county council would apply to the government for any cash shortfall.

Leader of Fareham Council Sean Woodward said the scheme went back to square one.

Councillor Woodward said: "If nothing has changed then it looks like Whiteley Way will never be built unless Hampshire County Council gets extra funding from the government. It really depends on the definition of open market value, whether that's agricultural value or the value to developers."

A spokesman for Taylor Woodrow, which owns one of the plots of land, said the company was keen to see the project completed.

She said: "Completing the development would benefit existing employment and retail facilities and support additional community facilities in the area.

"It would present exciting opportunities to improve the local road network."