Shrewsbury relief road planners urged to follow Hereford and shelve plans
Campaigners believe Shrewsbury North West Relief Road planners should follow Hereford's lead and shelve the project.
A planning application for the road, which will see a four-mile bypass, running from the Ellesmere Road Roundabout at Battlefield, in the north of the town, to the A5 at Churncote Island, is expected to be submitted by Shropshire Council this month.
But, after Herefordshire Council voted against building their western bypass last week, it has been suggested that Shropshire should follow suit.
Concerns have been raised about the North West Relief Road (NWRR), including the cost, environmental impact and potential effectiveness at getting cars out of the town centre.
But Shropshire Council believes the positives outweigh the negatives, and that the road will ultimately make the town greener, cleaner and will benefit the economy.
A study on the Hereford project found that providing improved walking and cycling facilities on their own would deliver a 14 per cent reduction in city traffic, and adding measures such as extra buses and park and ride would lead to even quieter roads. The Hereford bypass would have cost four times as much as implementing those measures.
Assessment
A spokesperson for Better Shrewsbury Transport said: “The Shrewsbury Big Town Plan sets out aspirations to promote many of the same measures that Hereford is now focused on.
"The very recent Big Town Plan Festival to launch the masterplan included many presentations, but the NWRR was hardly mentioned – showing that it is not seen as essential to implementing the plan.
"Also, since the outline business case for the North West Relief Road was submitted, the pandemic has struck and we know traffic will be reduced in future as people spend more time working from home.
"Shropshire Council itself has decided this will be the case for its own staff. These issues plus the fact the assessment of alternatives is out of date, means that a thorough, objective and up to date review must be done before any commitment is made on the road.
"There is good reason to believe that such a review will result in the same conclusion as in Hereford.
"Apart from saving many millions of pounds on this unneeded road we would avoid the massive carbon impacts and environmental damage, the blighting of many people’s lives by noise and the disappointment of finding that in the end the road didn’t even give the few benefits claimed for it.”
