Green Party Councillor Duncan Kerr has called on the Conservative Cabinet member for Highways at Shropshire Council to sort his priorities out and immediately fix dangerous, crumbling roads like Upper Brook St in Oswestry.

He explained “Shropshire Council say they are short of cash but they received £136M from the previous Government for local highways and last month £33M from the current Government specifically for fixing potholes. Residents will therefore share my exasperation that despite the persistent complaints of myself and other Shropshire Councillors the Portfolio-holder is saying they haven’t got the money in the current budget to resurface this road. You don’t need to be a highways engineer to see that this road is a serious danger to motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians and has deteriorated so badly that patching it is just a waste of time.

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly clear that maintenance budgets are being cut so that the Council can find the extra £90M it needs to meet the £178M cost of the Shrewsbury North-West relief road project. A scheme which has been heavily criticized by the Council’s own auditors for management failings.

I am therefore calling on the Portfolio-holder to get back to basics and recognise that there is little point trying to build new roads if the Council can’t even maintain its current roads. The capital money saved from abandoning the relief road could then be used for not only replacing worn out roads but also providing residents parking schemes, improving the bus services and investing in active transport".