Shrewsbury relief road funding fear for opponents over Shropshire Council agenda
Campaigners against the controversial Shrewsbury north west relief road claim it is obvious that the business case to be prepared this year will be biased in favour of building the road.
A motion has been put on the agenda for a meeting of Shropshire Council today that opponents say is "self congratulatory" because the council has obtained £1 million to update the business case.
According to Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth, the wording of the motion firmly assumes the business case will find the road should be built.
But Nick Bardsley, councillor for Ruyton and Baschurch, says the road is needed to alleviate the problems to the north of the town.
Frank Oldaker, joint co-ordinator of Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth said: "The implications behind the wording of this motion by Councillor Bardsley are extremely worrying. It has already been announced that the work will be carried out in-house and here we have a confident conclusion as to what the answer will be.
"To ensure proper use of scarce public money it is essential that business cases for projects such as this are impartial and must be above suspicion of biased assumptions having been made."
Mr Oldaker said the plans were outdated and that the cons outweighed the pros in terms in environmental factors.
"There are a number of problems that the road is supposed to solve but it is an old idea and modern thinking on transport planning has shown that there are other answers which may well be much cheaper and be more effective long term," he added.
"Looking for truly sustainable solutions means taking a much wider view and a local voluntary group – Sustainable Transport Shropshire – have produced an initial strategy for Shrewsbury. Their work could be a starting point for the business case update."
But Councillor Bardsley said sustainable transport links were only part of the solution. "Improved bus and rail links are great but we also need a relief road for HGVs, motorists and others wanting to get to and from the northern side of Shrewsbury from Oswestry and beyond.
"At present lorries, trucks and a high volume of cars are using the lanes around Baschurch, Montford and Fitz to get to Battlefield and these routes can not cope with that amount of traffic."
Simon Jones, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "It has been a long-standing ambition to deliver the north west relief road. However, this is simply a desktop exercise and there is no suggestion that we will be able to build the road. First we have to make the case for it."
