Beaconsfield’s long-awaited relief road could still be another four years away, the CEO of a housing developer has said amid an online spat with residents.

Drivers who regularly get caught up in traffic around the London End roundabout have been eagerly awaiting the finish of the A355 relief road, which has been discussed for years and is partially built.

While Buckinghamshire Council has completed its portion of the road, Inland Homes still has not – but taking to social media, CEO Stephen Wicks said “all being well”, their section will be completed and open “in around four years’ time”.

The completion of the relief road has become all the more critical in residents and commuters’ minds recently amid concerns from the Beaconsfield Society that as many as 400 HGVs could be imminently travelling in and out of the Old Town every day.

Replying to anger over the delay of the road completion on community platform Nextdoor, Mr Wicks said they have to have the road open before the 98th house on Wilton Park is occupied.

He said it would be a “long time” because they need to generate revenue from house sales to be able to demolish the properties in the path of the road, adding “The council built their section too early. So not really my fault?”

One upset Beaconsfield resident said those living in the town had been left feeling “betrayed” by the delay, which he said was not part of the original deal.

Mr Wicks responded by saying Wilton Park did not need the bypass to get planning permission to overhaul Wilton Park, but rather it was the council that wanted a relief road that “happens to go through our land”.

He added that the developers have to demolish “£10 million of perfectly good houses to facilitate the road”.

The CEO also appeared to partly blame residents for the delay, adding: “Half the problem is that residents fought the planning for years, we had hundreds of objections and could have got on years ago, to this day we still have not got a consent we can implement.”

“It’s a bit rich that after being delayed for years, you want us to do the ‘honourable thing’ and spend millions building a road before a single house is built.

“Let’s have a few hundred letters of support for a change and we might get consent to get on with the job sooner than later.”

In response to the comments online, cabinet member for transport at Buckinghamshire Council Cllr Nick Naylor said: “(The former) Buckinghamshire County Council completed the second of three stages in the construction of a relief road for Beaconsfield on 7 November 2019. The half-mile stretch will eventually become the A355, connecting with stage one, the short southern arm constructed by the Developer Inland Homes from Pyebush Roundabout in 2017. “Planning permission was granted in 2014 by (the former) South Bucks District Council for the construction of the southern section of the link road. The original completion date put forward by Inland Homes for the southern section of the Relief Road was 2018. It was on this basis that the council secured forward funding from the government for the delivery of the northern section of the road.

“In September 2019, planning permission was granted for the redevelopment of the former Wilton Park MoD site for housing including the delivery of the Southern relief road. Inland Homes is responsible for constructing the third stage of the relief road, which will complete the link between the Council’s northern stage and the existing southern arm.

“The planning permission stipulates that the remaining stretch of relief road should be finished alongside the completion and occupation of the first 99 new homes at Wilton Park. At this stage, Inland Homes has not yet commenced on site and are in discussions with the Council regarding required planning approvals.

“The council completed the northern section of road ahead of the developer’s section, to meet government funding commitments, which allocated the budget to be spent by 2019. The scheduling for the third stage is in the control of Inland Homes, and the council is in regular dialogue with them to bring forward the final section of the relief road as soon as possible.”

“The A355 Beaconsfield Relief Road is one of six major highways projects identified in Buckinghamshire’s Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) with the purpose of improving the council’s strategic transport network.”