Protesters lobby minister and Conservative club over relief road plans
Anti-relief road protesters took their message to Shrewsbury's Conservative Club as it hosted a visit from a government minister.
Around 20 protesters from Better Transport Shrewsbury turned out on Friday evening to the Beaconsfield Club, to campaign for the scrapping of Shrewsbury's North West Relief Road project.
The campaigners present had a number of placards as the club hosted a visit from Rachel Maclean MP, Minister of State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
They were calling for Shropshire Council to abandon the relief road scheme and spend money on improving the county's bus services instead.
The call comes after the council was unsuccessful in a £98m bid to transform local bus services.
Mike Streetly, from Better Transport Shrewsbury, said that while there the group had been approached by the police to ask what they were doing outside the club.
He said: “We were trying to flag up concerns about the lack of services, particularly in rural areas: Ditton Priors has no bus service, Cardington and Brockton have a school day service only, Clun only has one bus on a Monday and one on a Friday, Roden and High Ercall have no direct bus to Shrewsbury. It is no wonder that bus usage is dropping when service is so poor. We are also going to call for a proper bus station to be retained in the Riverside development.”
