Campaigners rebuke Shrewsbury MP's claims that they are responsible for delays to relief road
Campaigners have rebuked claims made by Shrewsbury's MP that they are responsible for delays to the North West Relief Road project.
It comes after MP Daniel Kawczynski said he would like to see the law changed to prevent major road projects, like the North West Relief Road, being held up by protestors.
MP Kawczynski said the cost of Shrewsbury's NWRR has rocketed because of delays to the scheme and that a number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests had been holding up the project.
But campaigners from Better Shrewsbury Transport (BeST) say the only group responsible for delaying the project is Shropshire Council itself.
Speaking on behalf of BeST, Mike Streetly said: "It’s very flattering that Mr Kawczynski thinks that a campaign group like BeST is powerful enough to stop this road from going ahead.
"The reality is, though, that the only group delaying the road is Shropshire Council itself.
"Despite spending over £23m to date, the council has failed to submit the evidence requested by the Environment Agency (EA), which is a statutory stakeholder."
The Environment Agency has advised the council not to grant planning permission to the project at this time, flagging up areas where information is lacking.
The EA has spoken of the risk to the borehole which supplies Shropshire with drinking water coming from the piling works for the viaduct crossing the Severn at Shelton, as well as potential chemical spills from vehicles including HGVs, using the new road.
