Shrewsbury relief road to be funded by money saved on HS2 - transport secretary

Mark Harper said a number of transport schemes in the Midlands would benefit from the HS2 money

Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper says a relief road in Shropshire will go ahead with money saved by scrapping phase two of the HS2 line.

The North West Relief Road is one of a number of Midlands transport projects which would receive a share of £10bn.

The road scheme had been in doubt due to rising costs and Mr Harper said he wanted to take the financial pressure off Shropshire Council.

He also said the government remained committed to phase one of HS2.

That involves a high speed railway line between Birmingham and London, although it is still unclear where trains will stop when they reach the capital.

Mr Harper told the BBC on Thursday the government was "absolutely committed to doing the full phase one, from Birmingham all the way to Euston".

But he went on to admit "at the moment, the way we've been delivering it, we haven't got a station that we can deliver".

So he said it was more likely to mean "a new station which we think will be delivered faster and at much lower cost to the taxpayer".

No date yet, says minister

Earlier this month, the Prime Minister announced the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the HS2 high-speed railway line would not go ahead.

Mark Harper said this would save £36bn, with some of the money being spent on projects in the Midlands which would be delivered sooner.

He did not give other examples.

Mr Harper said he did not want to "pluck a date out of the air and then disappoint people", but hoped an announcement on the future of the scheme would now be made in the coming months.

Shropshire Council has already spent £24m on preparatory work for the relief road, which the authority said will take traffic out of the centre of Shrewsbury and benefit businesses in the town.

It said it had previously secured £54.4m from the Department for Transport for the project and had not been formally notified of any change to this, but would welcome any additional government funding.

It also said it expected a planning application for the relief road to be determined shortly.

The single lane relief road will link northern and western parts of Shrewsbury

Mr Harper also apologised to people who had their lives disrupted by the HS2 work over the past years only to be told phase two would not now go ahead.

But he added: "I hope they would at least accept that we've tried to do what we think is right for the country as a whole."