Call for resignations over Shrewsbury £95m road cost error

The proposed relief road aims to ease traffic in and around Shrewsbury

Councillors have called for resignations after an error in a report led to £95m of extra borrowing being approved.

The sum was included by mistake in a Shropshire Council document about North West Relief Road (NWRR) spending.

While the vote at a full council meeting last week did not commit the authority to the action green-lit by members, a row followed.

The Labour group said the authority had become a "national laughing stock".

Blaming the Conservative-led administration, Labour called for some cabinet members to resign.

Opposition members have in turn been accused of political point-scoring, and told there would be no resignations.

The error saw backing for additional borrowing to cover a "funding gap" in the cost of the proposed road. But the approved sum had the project's total bill soaring from previous estimates of £87m to £182m.

Despite queries from opposition councillors over the matter, Gwilym Butler, portfolio holder for resources, and Dan Morris, portfolio holder for highways, both spoke last week in defence of allocating the money.

While Conservative members voted to approve the changes, the authority's director of finance James Walton later confirmed the sum was a "holding figure" on a spreadsheet that should have been deleted.

Labour group leader, Julia Buckley, said the Tory members' actions showed "a serious failure of corporate governance and performance".

"They have made Shropshire a national laughing stock, and they must now do the decent thing and resign," she added.

'Witch hunt'

In response, Mr Butler reiterated the inclusion of the figure was down to "human error".

He added: "The report did not entail voting through any extra monies for the NWRR, the report was for noting and for sending through to the financial task and finish group and subsequently the full budget process."

Mr Morris said cabinet members would not stage a "witch hunt" to find those responsible.

"The corrections will be made at the December full council meeting. Therefore, you can only surmise that the reason for Councillor Buckley's continued noise around this is for purely political reasons," he added.