Revealed: 'Eyewatering' amount of millions of pounds paid by Shropshire Council to engineering consultants for the county's ill-fated North West Relief Road

Shropshire Council spent nearly £25 million on a consultancy firm for the ill-fated North West Relief Road (NWRR) project.

The scheme is still officially paused due to the authority unable to fund it any more. The amount spent on it – around £39m – is also part of the council’s exceptional financial support request to the Government in case it has to pay back the sum.

At a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday (February 11), Councillor Rosemary Dartnall, who is the leader of the Labour Group, asked for a breakdown of what and who the money was spent on.

Shropshire Council split the figures in two sections – the amount spent on the NWRR and the Oxon Link Road (OLR), a separate element of the scheme.

It showed that £32.1m had been spent on the NWRR and £6.8m on the OLR.

However, a huge £24.4m of that went to WSP, a global engineering and professional services firm that prepared the full planning application and the initial outline business case.

Meanwhile, Balfour Beatty picked up just over £5.1m for managing the provision of ground investigation and piling works, while Keir received nearly £2.9m for overseeing the later phases.

When seeing the sums, Cllr Dartnall said that a minute’s silence should be held, highlighting that the amount that WSP received “is an absolutely shocking figure.”

“Was this a simple contract – you do the work, we pay you – or was there any element of results-based incentivisation?” asked Cllr Dartnall.

“It seems to me that the project has failed, it never managed to get planning permission for which they were responsible, and that was mainly due to water supply contamination concerns.

“So, that bespoke work should have revealed whether or not piling would impact the water table.”

Cllr Dartnall pointed out that the funding letter that the Department for Transport drew up “clearly stated that any spending undertaken by Shropshire Council would be undertaken at full risk.”

She therefore asked Councillor David Vasmer, portfolio holder for highways, if he believes that the scale of funding was wisely undertaken.

In response, Cllr Vasmer said: “I personally believe there has not been enough proper oversight of this project, and we need to make sure, going forward, this type of spending never happens again and we are in total control.

“Certainly, we’re going to review this spending to make sure we learn the lessons from this. As you say, the amount of money is eyewatering.”

Leader of the council, Heather Kidd added that things are being put in place around procurement and contract management, and ensuring there is a single point of accountability. She confirmed that the NWRR project will probably be part of a task and finish group, which will look at what lessons can be learned.