Shropshire Star

Shrewsbury relief road 'the bit the town is missing'

Councillors have backed the ongoing Shrewsbury North West Relief Road project, with the road described as "the bit the town is missing".

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At a full meeting of Shropshire Council, Nick Bardsley, local member for Ruyton and Baschurch, tabled a motion calling on the authority to urge for every effort to be made to bring forward the construction of the road.

Late last year, £1 million of funding was secured to put together a business case to submit to government in a bid to win funding for the building of the road.

Councillor Bardsley said: "For those not familiar with the villages north of Shrewsbury, Ruyton XI Towns and Baschurch lie on B roads.

"These are totally unsuited to the volume of traffic using them.

"There is a very real danger for the people in these communities particularly children going to and from school and considerable environmental damage to the villages and people that live there. I am not blaming drivers, where are they supposed to go?

"With the best will in the world, getting some people out of cars and onto buses or trains is not going to solve the problems.

"It is particularly not going to solve the problem of commercial traffic and HGVs along little lanes in villages. Now the Oxon Link Road is due to start in a few years time, and the North West Relief Road will make a huge difference to these communities.

"It is too early to debate precise routes and of course there needs to be proper consultation and I accept these are the early stages and there is a great deal of work to be done.

"It is not going to get better if we just continue to keep saying we want more studies. It is getting worse all the time.

"I think we have assumed for a long time rural villages are managing fine, they are not."

Councillor Simon Jones, portfolio holder for highways, told the meeting the Department for Transport had responded positively to the early case for the relief road, but warned it was still at the early stages.

Keith Roberts, councillor for Radbrook, backed his colleague's motion.

He said: "I have lived in Shrewsbury for 38 years, part of that was 24 years as a police officer.

"I have listened to Nick about the villages – these are lanes that are trying to accommodate 38 tonne wagons. I fully support the North West Relief Road.

"It is the bit that is missing from Shrewsbury. If it is built properly, it will blend in with the countryside and will solve many of the problems this town has had.

"Lets stop whinging about it, lets support this and get on with it once and for all."

Despite the motion being carried after a vote, there was some opposition to it.

Councillor Miles Kenny said: "I find it difficult to believe anybody would want to drive a road through the location proposed. This area is rich in bio-diversity.

"I appreciate the problem with traffic but there are problems all over the place. The A49 is in an appalling state – should we not be improving these roads?

"Creating and building more roads ultimately leads to more congestion.

Councillor Hannah Fraser said the motion jumped the gun and urged for lots more evidence to be gathered before any progress was made.

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