Relief road work put on hold

The relief road was proposed as a way to reduce congestion through Shrewsbury

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.

Opposition parties condemn project

Rosemary Dartnall, the leader of the council's Labour group, said it had "long been obvious" to her party that the road was an "unfunded and unaffordable megaproject"

She said there had been a lack of transparency and added: "The sad truth is that £39m of taxpayers money has been wasted on developing this project, despite opposition calls to stop the spending."

Green Party leader, Julian Dean, said: "The scheme was heading for the rocks already, with runaway costs and overruns in completing planning conditions, but it is good to see a decision by Shropshire council to cancel this is now imminent."

He said they should be looking at "plans to relieve congestion, support public transport, and encourage walking and cycling" instead.

Shropshire's group leader of Reform UK, Dawn Husemann, said: "Given the perilous financial position the council is in, we simply cannot afford this project without significant Government funding."

The Conservative Party has been approached for comment.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.