Anger over C-charges plan

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The possibility of congestion charging in Shrewsbury town centre has arisen with the news that Shropshire County Council wants to introduce a number of measures to reduce overcrowding on the roads.In addition to charging motorists up to £1.50 to drive into the centre, the authority wants to build a new north-west relief road - which could also attract a fee - as well as create new park and ride systems.

The residents and business people of Shrewsbury are, however, less convinced about the scheme’s merits and some firmly against the idea.

Our video journalist James Shaw braved the showers to find out the latest opinions on this controversial issue.

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This article was posted on July 6, 2007 at 11:01 am.
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4 Comments

  1. Kavan said: Jul 6th, 2007 at 5:46 pm

    Shrewsbury will become a ghost town, it will be cheaper to drive to Telford.

  2. andy myers said: Jul 6th, 2007 at 7:02 pm

    Whilst it may sound reasonable to introduce charges at a low level such as £1.00 for use of town center road or the new by pass. How long will it be before the council sees this as a cash cow and begins to milk the motorist like the Government has. London introduced the congestion charge and that was supposed to be pegged at it’s original level for some years to come. It wasn’t long before greed took over and the original charges were disposed of, an increase in fees announced as well as an increase in area. The councils views on this would be a little more credible of it weren’t for recent changes in the road system that actually create congestion. Namely the strange three lane section of the Whitchurch road by the new Tesco’s. Road narrowing/ Footpath widening projects outside Morrisons not to mention the unnecessary traffic lights at the bottom of Mount pleasant road and the ridiculous timings of the traffic light system throughout the town, in particular Meole Brace Island. All no doubt planned in the past to justify rising taxes in the futire.

  3. Huw Peach said: Jul 7th, 2007 at 6:26 am

    Thanks to Shropshire Star journalist, James Shaw, for his work on this interesting and well-made video report.

    I wonder, though, why he chose not to consider or even mention other wider important aspects of this debate;

    1) the horrendous impact of a North West Rleief road on the most beautiful remaining part of Shrewsbury’s countryside

    2)why much cheaper and far more popular non-road methods for reducing traffic were not preferred by the County Council, for example the proposed SUSTRANS Severnside Gap cycle path project

    Estimated cost of a NWRR: £61m (+charges to motorists each time they use it.)

    Estimated cost of the above cycle path: £1m

    Multiply these sort of environmentally-friendly schemes by 61 and one can only imagine how much more effective, sustainable and popular they would be.

    3) The fact that more roads only lead to more traffic (see Newbury), and that more traffic means more carbon emissions.

    In a week when Shrewsbury’s unprecedented June/July flood remind us of the global issue of climate change, and in the same week as the worldwide Live Earth concert, surely this deserved some mention.

    I really don’t think the sponsors of this page (mostly car dealers) would have minded that much, would they?

    Thanks again, though, for this thought-provoking report.

  4. ANDREW FINCH said: Jul 7th, 2007 at 4:17 pm

    shrewsbury has become a ghost town already no shops in the high street but loads of coffee shops ,and who an earth aloud the cash a cheque type shops on to shrewsburys high streets this is so down market and probaly exploitive of the people who use them , then there are two shopping centres totally pointless and are devoid of charactor