Fight for Shrewsbury relief road funding
The North West Relief Road will face a fight for funding as it goes up against other projects from across the country, a government minister has confirmed.
Andrew Jones MP, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, has said that the plans for the road will be considered along with other road schemes across England and Wales – with no guarantee of the funding, which would amount to anywhere up to £150 million.
Currently Shropshire Council is using nearly £1 million of government funding for the preparation of a business case which will be used to persuade ministers to give the road the go-ahead.
Mr Jones said that the Department for Transport would be providing advice to Shropshire Council in the preparation of the business case, which will be submitted later this year.
Responding to a question from Shrewsbury & Atcham MP and long-time relief road advocate Daniel Kawczynski, He said: "The department is providing £942,875 as requested by Shropshire Council for the development of the business case and payment will be made shortly.
"Departmental officials have already met council officers and will continue to provide advice up to the submission of the business case to the department. We will then make a decision on whether or not to provide funding for the construction of this scheme and any others submitted at the same time. The large majors programme is competitive and not every scheme will be funded."
Mr Kawczynski said the response illustrates the importance of ensuring the business case for the road is a robust as possible.
He said: "The Marches Local Enterprise Partnership, the council and I are doing everything possible to ensure they are at the front of the queue. There will be fierce competition with other areas as to what gets funding."
Mr Kawczynski said that the road, which would complete the "loop" around Shrewsbury, is vital given the expansion of the town.
He said: "It is critical. This road has been stop start for the last four decades and Shrewsbury is starting to suffer visibly due to that lack of construction.
"We are earmarked for a huge number of house building schemes over the next few years and Shrewsbury is already heavily congested. It can take an hour to cross the town at times. We are now getting people who are actively bypassing town for shopping because of the time it take to get in and out of town.
"I see this as the number one threat to Shrewsbury's economic prosperity."
