£4 million Oxon Link Road package welcomed by council as concerns remain
Funding for a vital piece of a controversial new link road near Shrewsbury has now fallen into place.
Marches Local Enterprise Partnership has confirmed that it believes Shropshire Council has met its conditions for funding the Oxon Link Road.
This will secure £4 million of funding towards the costs of the Oxon Link Road which would connect the A5 to the planned Shrewsbury North West Relief Road (NWRR).
The NWRR, along with the Oxon Link Road, secured planning permission in October subject to conditions.
The Oxon Link Road will help enable the Shrewsbury West Sustainable Urban Extension (SUE) which is proposed to be mixture of new homes and businesses, at Shelton on the outskirts of Shrewsbury.
Councillor Dan Morris, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for highways, said: “We welcome the announcement by the Marches LEP which confirms the funding for the Oxon Link Road.
“As plans for the SUE West progress they will generate significant economic benefits for Shrewsbury, and for the county as a whole.”
The council says the benefits of the North West Relied Road include that it will free up road space and take traffic out of Shrewsbury town centre, making it a much more attractive place for residents, businesses and visitors.
It says it will also improve safety in villages that are "currently blighted by traffic rat runs trying to bypass the long loop around Shrewsbury created by the incomplete ring road".
A council spokesperson added: "It is key piece of national and regional transport infrastructure, completes a ring around Shrewsbury that’s been unfinished for 30 years, while also supporting a key international road link with Ireland."
But only this week the Environment Agency sent a strongly worded letter to the council, outlining a number of requirements and concerns about the plans and the council's approach to its own worries about the proposals.
Outlining its overall concern, it stated: "There is a significant risk of impact upon the water supply at this location, based on the route and design the applicant has chosen to pursue."
Meanwhile, a petition to stop the scheme has been signed by around 94,000 people, with a fundraiser being run to mount a legal challenge.
Opponents say the whole scheme is "expensive and rushed-through" and goes against the wishes of more than 5,000 objectors.
"The road will decimate one of the last vestiges of beautiful countryside extending almost to the heart of the county town and widely known as Shrewsbury’s Green Wedge," say objectors on their petition.
The damage will include to veteran trees, including one dubbed the Darwin Oak in the Shelton area.
"The proposed felling of numerous veteran trees, hundreds of further trees and the Darwin Oak now goes against the government’s own National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)," the opponents say.
