Shropshire Council could axe 50 projects to save £30m

Fifty schemes across Shropshire are set to be axed in a bid to save more than £30 million over the next five years, it was revealed today.

Long awaited projects such as the Shrewsbury West End Road improvements, work on the market hall in Ellesmere and the Ludlow Transport Hub scheme have all been included in a hit-list drawn up by Shropshire Council chiefs.

A proposed £150,000 saving has been suggested by withdrawing funding for gipsy sites in the county.

The plans are expected to save £19 million next year alone with a total of £31.5 million by 2014/15.

Shropshire Council officers are recommending the projects are cut in a report to members of the authority's cabinet next Tuesday.

But a number of schemes are also set to be safeguarded for the future including the redevelopment of the historic Flax Mill in Shrewsbury and the proposed Market Drayton Inner Relief Road.

Other projects that are set to escape the axe include the £7 million plan to turn Shrewsbury's Music Hall into a visitor and heritage centre as well as the Oswestry depot replacement for the Whittington and Alexander Road Depots.

Keith Barrow, leader of Shropshire Council, today said it would be a "tough" decision to scrap the 50 schemes from the authority's capital programme, but claimed they had little choice in the face of unprecedented Government cutbacks.

He said: "Originally with the capital programme we were going to borrow money and that borrowing was going to be paid for out of revenue but that's our problem.

"We have had to cut our cloth to what we can afford and we can't afford to borrow money and pay the interest on that.

Some aspirational projects which were in the pipeline are no longer affordable at the moment but that isn't to say they are off the agenda forever."

One of the schemes set for the axe is the £1.5 million needed to upgrade cremators at Emstrey Crematorium. The council is currently considering selling off the site along with cemeteries across the county to a private firm.

Mr Barrow said: "An awful lot of time and effort has gone into this process. It wasn't easy but we have come up with the best possible solution we can."

By Russell Roberts