THE next step will be taken today towards the development of a proposed road link for traffic leaving and entering a city centre.

Sunderland City Council is formally to apply for compulsory purchase orders to clear the way for the £17m southern radial route.

The orders would allow the council to buy any properties, including private houses, on the route of the proposed road, which received Government backing in 1996.

The road would redirect traffic from the pedestrian shopping areas of Hendon and Grangetown on the southern fringes of the city.

The A1018 Ryhope Road carries about 25,000 vehicles each day, but this would drop to an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 vehicles, made up of purely local traffic, should the radial route extension receive the go-ahead.

If objections are lodged to the proposed road it could lead to a public inquiry being called.

Objections have to be lodged with the Government Office for the North-East, Wellbar House, Gallowgate, Newcastle, NE1 4TB.