Action meeting on Shrewsbury North West Relief Road plans
Campaigners calling for a halt to the North West Relief Road will hold a meeting tomorrow nigh to discuss their concerns.
A further meeting, organised by Shrewsbury Civic Society, will be held next month.
Ahead of the meetings, which will both be held at The Guildhall, the Shrewsbury District branch of the CPRE has reiterated its objection to the project.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow's meeting which has been organised by Shrewsbury Better Transport (BeST) and Sustainable Transport Shropshire, Susan Lockwood of the CPRE said: “We continue to object to the NWRR because of both the loss of important swathes of countryside and our ongoing doubts that it will achieve its stated objectives.
“With the urgent need to protect ecosystems, reduce noise pollution and provide cleaner air, we believe the NWRR would be detrimental to those aims.”
Shrewsbury Better Transport says it wants Shropshire Council to immediately stop all work on the proposed road because "there’s a climate emergency; there are better, cheaper and more sustainable alternatives; we need cleaner air now; it won’t reduce congestion; it will be risky and ruinously expensive; it will divert money from developers that was supposed to be for local communities; it will increase inequality; it will destroy important local green infrastructure and create traffic noise through the quiet area of countryside; it will put the town’s water supply at risk and a new road will open up the whole of Shrewsbury’s unique green wedge to house building".
The meeting will be addressed by national and local experts in transport planning and the environmental impacts of road schemes including Lynn Sloman, Transport for Quality of Life; John Whitelegg - Associate, Centre for Mobility Studies, Kassel, Germany; Robin Mager, Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Dave Green – Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth.
Concerns
A further meeting has been organised by Shrewsbury Civic Society to hear both sides of the case for the new road. This meeting will take place between 1.30pm and 5pm on November 30.
Susan added: “It is only by attending these meetings and having the opportunity to air views and concerns around the impact that the NWRR could have, that the CPRE can have an impact. For that reason, we’d strongly encourage both our members and other concerned members of the community to attend one or both of these events.”
The £71 million road, which has an anticipated completion date of 2023, will link Bicton Heath to the Ellesmere Road.
It has attracted millions of pounds of funding from the Department of Transport. Two bridges will be built along the seven-mile route, one crossing the River Severn and the other over the Shrewsbury to Chester rail line.
The new road will span the Battlefield Link Road and the Oxon Link Road – and will provide a new, single-carriageway route taking traffic out of the town centre.
