'Significant weakness' in relief road funding

Shropshire Council says it is confident of receiving the government funding needed to pay for a controversial bypass in Shrewsbury despite concerns raised about the plan to fund the project.

The authority is hoping construction on the North West Relief Road (NWRR) can get underway in 2025.

An external audit report has criticised the council for relying too much on a promise from the previous Conservative government to fully fund the project, which the new Labour government has thrown into doubt by putting the scheme under review.

The annual report for 2023-24 identified other weaknesses in the council's funding arrangements.

They included an insufficient back-up plan should the road be cancelled

The NWRR would connect Churncote Island on the A5, to the west of the town, to the A528 Ellesmere Road in the north, completing an A road circuit of Shrewsbury.

The scheme has been under consideration for decades.

The latest annual audit report, written by Grant Thornton for the council, highlighted that the Department for Transport agreed a funding amount of £136m in March 2024.

But the firm raised concern around the credibility of the offer which was not given in writing - and preceded July's general election.

In their summary, Grant Thornton staffs concluded there was "significant weakness" found in the funding and how the project was being managed in 2023-24.

In October, Shrewsbury's Labour MP, Julia Buckley, was told by new transport minister Lilian Greenwood that funding for the road was not currently guaranteed and remained under review.

The councillor in charge of highways, Dan Morris, said the authority was finalising its full business case, which should have been presented to full council in September before being submitted to the government.

However the process has been delayed until the new year.

"We know there are similar schemes to this nationally which have had 85% government funding," said councillor Morris.

"We remain hopeful it will still be the case for the relief road and we remain confident that it will happen.

"We're ploughing on with the road because it's the right thing for Shropshire.

"The hospital trust wants it, Shrewsbury's Business Improvement District wants it, the Chamber of Commerce wants it."

The report included figures which showed how the cost of the project had ballooned from £87.1m in 2019, when the outline business case was approved, to £171m in June 2024.

Opposition parties and campaigners have also criticised the council in recent days over the road's potential impact on the environment.

An updated report on the council's planning website about the project's greenhouse gas emissions suggested the carbon dioxide produced over a 60 year period could more than double to 77,000 tonnes.

The council spokesperson said a "full and robust" carbon management plan would be submitted to the local planning authority (the council) for its approval before works got under way.

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