The A483 Pant and Llanymynech bypass would cost more than £50 million to build – making it so expensive it is unlikely to secure funding, it was revealed today.

The huge sum has been revealed in a report drawn up in an attempt to find a cheaper option. But factors such as land value, risk and inflation has caused the cost to spiral.

It has come as a huge blow to campaigners who have been calling for a bypass for decades.

The draft report is yet to be released, but an update on the scheme is to go before Shropshire county councillors next week.

It says: “The Highways Agency advise that the review was undertaken to current assessment criteria and whilst the works cost were reduced other factors such as land cost, risk and inflation have pushed the scheme outturn costs to over £50 million.

“It has concluded that any proposed scheme has a low benefit cost ratio. This would be unlikely to score very highly in any future regional funding allocation (for major schemes) process.”

Councillor Dilys Gaskill, of Llanymynech, said: “It is never going to stand up against a road scheme in the middle of the West Midlands.

“How can we be compared at regional level to improvements at New Street Station, Birmingham? The conditions we live in are not the same as urban areas.

“They have to look at the environment and the surroundings. It will benefit the people in the villages and road users. They can’t just go on facts and figures.”

She said 14,200 vehicles a day drive through Pant and Llanymynech, 13 per cent of which are HGVs.

“The volume of traffic and size of the lorries makes it really scary to walk on the pavements. People in the village use the side roads and keep off the main road because it’s so scary so you never see anybody about.

“The longer it goes on the more the costs go up. How much does it cost for all the repairs, the sunken drains, the anti-skid surface?

“They are just sticking plasters on wounds because it was not built for modern traffic, it was built by Thomas Telford in the late 1700s.”

She added: “Why don’t they bite the bullet and build a bypass to modern standards.”

By Suzanne Roberts