'Tens of millions of pounds wasted' - Relief road opponents lament lost cash as scheme looks dead in the water
Campaigners have called for 'lessons to be learned' after Shropshire Council effectively cancelled the controversial North West Relief Road.
On Thursday (June 26) the council's new Liberal Democrat administration confirmed all work on the long-running Shrewsbury road project had been stopped.
In a statement the council said it intends to officially cancel the project, but needs discussions with the Government over the financial implications, and full council approval for the decision.
There are concerns that in the event of the council voluntarily cancelling the road, the Government will seek to recover the £54m grant it awarded for the scheme back in 2018.
Such a situation would throw the cash-strapped authority into major financial peril, with £39m of the funding having already been spent on the scheme so far.
The council is seeking further discussions with transport ministers over the subject.
Reacting to the latest developments, Mike Streetly of Better Shrewsbury Transport (BeST), which has been a vocal opponent of the plans for the road, said lessons needed to be learned to avoid "another of these council fiascos".
Mr Streetly said millions of pounds had been wasted, along with significant time that could have been spent tackling traffic problems in Shrewsbury.
He said: "While we are pleased that we are getting towards the end of this sorry saga, we do hope that lessons will be learned that will mean we won't see another of these council fiascos.
"What happened here was a small group of Tory councillors and officers tried to drive through a deeply problematic project."
He said the council had not been open about problems - such as huge cost increases - as they arose, and either pushed them down the line, or attempted to keep them behind closed doors.
He said: "They knew about the unsustainable price increases years before they admitted it and, instead of cutting their losses then, they ploughed on.
"The net result is many tens of millions of pounds more wasted.
"The saddest aspect is that we've lost a whole decade on this disaster when we could have been pushing forward on better ways of solving traffic problems in Shrewsbury."
