Shrewsbury relief road work put on hold
All work on a proposed bypass has been paused to allow talks to take place with the Department for Transport (DfT) about its cancellation.Since a change in leadership at Shropshire Council, the authority has been looking to scrap Shrewsbury's North West Relief Road, and a meeting was held with the DfT on Monday.The council was told there would be no more funding for the project and that work would have to be stopped before further discussions could take place.The council, which is now run by the Liberal Democrats, has said it would like to avoid paying back the money it has already received from the government.
The scheme was originally put forward by the previous Conservative administration, with the aim of reducing congestion and pollution in the town centre.It was opposed by environmental groups and opposition parties because of the costs involved and the possible environmental impact of the work, with both suggesting the money would be better spent on other schemes to reduce congestion.The cost of constructing the road was originally estimated at £87.2m.Eight years later, the estimated cost stands at £215m, due to planning delays, significant increases in global construction costs, and concerns with the scheme's governance arrangements.At the meeting on Monday, DfT officers confirmed that they would not award any more money than had been originally allocated to the project. Furthermore, the Local Transport Fund of £136.4m, originally mooted by the previous administration to fund the scheme, has been replaced with a Local Transport Grant totalling only £48m.The DfT said if work on the scheme was stopped, formal discussions could take place with Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood MP, the DfT and other parts of central government about the £39m it has already spent on the scheme.Council leader Heather Kidd said it was "made very clear that no more funding would be allocated to the scheme".With the possibility that costs could rise still further, she said: ""Borrowing that level of money is not a serious option given our financial position and the implications it would have for the rest of our budget and services."She said this created a £176m funding gap for the relief road and made it "simply unaffordable", so the council had no choice but to cancel it.However, that decision would still have to be made by full council.
This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.
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