'Huge' number of Shrewsbury relief road objections 'a warning sign'
More than 4,000 objections to Shrewsbury's North West Relief Road should be "a real warning sign" that the public doesn't want it, say campaigners.
Just shy of 200 comments have been uploaded to Shropshire Council's planning portal in support of the planning application for the £87 million road, after planners extended the deadline on submitting comments so that more people could have a say.
The road, which would stretch for four miles from Churncote Roundabout to Battlefield, has proved highly controversial since the planning application was submitted in March. It was a key issue in the May local elections and is considered an integral reason that former Conservative council leader Peter Nutting was ousted.
In June, Shrewsbury Town Council voted against the road on the basis of its financial and environmental cost and concerns that it wouldn’t solve the town’s traffic issues.
Mike Streetly, a spokesperson for campaign group Better Shrewsbury Transport said: "We knew there was a huge level of objection to the road, but the scale of the opposition is amazing.
"Most planning applications only a get a couple of hundred responses. For the application to receive a record-breaking 4,000 objections is a real warning sign that this project does not have public support.
"When Shropshire Council applied to the Department for Transport for a £54 million grant for the scheme, they assured the government that the road wasn’t controversial. These figures prove otherwise."
As well as individuals, many organisations have raised objections to the road, including the Environment Agency, Shropshire Wildlife Trust, the Woodland Trust, Cycle UK, the Shrewsbury Civic Society, as well as the Shropshire Climate Action Partnership, which is working with the council to reduce emissions across the county. Severn Trent Water has also raised concerns over the potential impact of the road on Shrewsbury’s drinking water supply.
Mr Streetly added: "Having looked through the objections it’s clear that people do not believe Shropshire’s Council’s argument that this road is necessary. The traffic modelling shows it will not reduce congestion in Shrewsbury and the environmental impact shows it is incompatible with the council’s climate emergency declaration. The biggest concern, though, is the cost, which we project to rise to £130m. Any overrun will have to be met by Shropshire Council.
"Only last week, Lezley Picton, the new council leader, admitted that the council doesn’t have enough money to pay for basic services let alone the extra cost of this road.
"Do the people of Shropshire really want to pay tens of millions of pounds for four miles of road in Shrewsbury that Shrewsbury Town Council doesn’t want? That money could be spent across the county on local services from libraries to buses to repairing the roads we already."
