'It is no surprise that the North West Relief Road will not happen' - Your Letters: July 28
PICTURE FROM THE ARCHIVE: RAF Cosford Museum relies on its team of volunteers to keep operating. They also inform the thousands of visitors who come to the base each year. Richard Perks from Newport is pictured in 2018 at the annual air show, with a Boulton Paul Defiant that was built around 1938.
DEMISE OF NWRR IS NO SURPRISE
It is no surprise that the North West Relief Road will not happen. I told the business and residential community as well as the council in 2001 when I was chief executive of the council it would not be practical or economic and that was when forecast costs were less than £20m.
It was one of 20 projects and schemes that had come forward from the Shrewsbury Conference in September of 2000. All of the other ideas and projects that came forward were confirmed as deliverable and in period while Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council (SABC) existed were delivered.
SABC accepted my professional view on this. It’s sad Shropshire Council was less wise and having reportedly spent £35,000,000 of taxpayers money which was avoidable. Whether it should be repaid to Government is a good question and one that should be challenged as the proposed road was intended to relieve trunk road usage so a national taxpayer and Government responsibility. The wider option for road improvements is to build an A5 flyover at Dobbies roundabout which is a trunk road and therefore a government responsibility to finance.
Robin Hooper, Former Chief Executive of SABC
SINGAPORE CASH IS MISPLACED
Let us consider the situation of that poverty stricken country, Singapore. Maybe we evil colonising Brits owe them a bob or two after bringing it from a bog standard trading place to pre-eminence due to Stamford Raffles, the bloke who spent his spare time building hotels in the Far East.
Foreign secretary David Lammy is in Singapore announcing a new UK-Singapore Green Energy collaboration. As part of the deal, he’s pledged £70 million of UK taxpayers’ money to support Singapore’s “clean energy transition.”
Singapore ranks 4th globally in GDP per capita, according to the IMF. It also contributes just 0.15 per cent of global carbon emissions as of 2022. The country already has a well-developed green agenda through its Green Plan 2030, having doubled its solar capacity since 2020 and frozen growth in vehicle numbers.
