Shrewsbury bypass changes 'to save £7m and cut carbon impact'

The revisions to the plans would see changes to a proposed viaduct over the River Severn

Plans for a new bypass around the north-west side of Shrewsbury have been revised to save £7m.

Shropshire Council said the main change would see a shortening of the proposed viaduct over the River Severn.

The scheme has attracted more than 4,500 public comments including hundreds of objections, with many citing environmental concerns.

The council's deputy leader, Steve Charmley, said the changes would reduce the project's carbon impact by 31%.

"We looked at many different ways we can help reduce this," he said.

"We are putting an ambition in to plant a tree for every Shropshire resident as part of the scheme so it will be a huge carbon offset."

The relief road has been talked about since the mid-1980s but it took until 2009 for the government to identify it as a priority.

The scheme aims to link the northern end of Shrewsbury to the western point, completing a ring road around the town.

The route would link northern and western parts of Shrewsbury and include two new bridges

The council said the latest alterations would cut the project's budget to £80.1m, with £54.4m of the sum coming from the government.

Under simplifications, the authority said, a "climbing lane" for the viaduct would be removed, making it a wide, single road.

It added the tweaks would cut the amount of construction materials, making up the bulk of the carbon reduction.

The council said it was responding to feedback from the public.

Many of the objections say the road goes against the authority's declaration of a climate emergency in 2019 and will lead to more traffic and higher carbon emissions.

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Mr Charmley said he wanted to reduce traffic in the centre of Shrewsbury and the relief road was necessary to achieve that.

"I am fully committed to a low-traffic town centre - whether that is pedestrianised in full or not remains to be seen.

"But we need to take the traffic out of the town centre and that traffic has got to have somewhere to go."

A decision on the revised plans is expected by the end of 2021.

The council said it hoped a final business case would be signed off by the Department for Transport in early 2022.