Shrewsbury MP nails his colours to relief road mast
An MP has thrown his weight behind plans for Shrewsbury's North West Relief Road, describing a town councillor's criticism of the project as 'flippant' and 'unfortunate'.
Daniel Kawczynski, Conservative MP for Shrewsbury & Atcham, was speaking after Shrewsbury Town Council decided to formally object to Shropshire Council's plans for the North West Relief Road – a project of which he is a long-term advocate.
During the meeting Green Party Councillor and Shrewsbury Mayor, Julian Dean, described the plan as 'bonkers', while Labour Council Leader Alan Mosley said the people of Shrewsbury "do not want it".
The project was seen as a major battleground in the run-up to the recent local council elections but Mr Kawczynski has firmly nailed his colours to the mast, saying the road is vital for the future economic prosperity of Shrewsbury – and Shropshire.
The MP said he believed the project was the right thing to do – even if some people have warned him it could damage his prospects of re-election.
The Conservative group on Shropshire Council suffered a number of damaging defeats in Shrewsbury during this month's election – in Bowbrook, Radbrook, and Copthorne, where council leader and relief road advocate Peter Nutting was beaten.
Opposition to the plans for the road was seen a central reason behind the results.
Mr Kawczynski said: "The town council has described this as 'bonkers', which I think is a very, very unfortunate, rather flippant way in which the town council are looking at this project.
"It has taken a huge amount of resources, a business case looking at logistics and the economic aspects, there have been literally hundreds of meetings between the unitary authority, the Department of Transport, Shropshire Business Chamber, the Marches LEP. These are organisations that are responsible for Shropshire's economic development so for the town council to refer to this as 'bonkers' says more about the councillor concerned than it does about anything else."
'Regrettable'
Mr Kawczynski said that despite the Conservatives' difficulties in the recent election, only a small percentage of the county had registered opposition to the project – around 3,000 objections are understood to have been submitted to the planning application.
He said: "Yes we took a hammering in the local elections, which is very regrettable for me, and yes it is true that there is a certain agitation against this road in SY3 where we lost four divisions.
"Inevitably people in SY3, Copthorne, Bowbrook, Radbrook, do not like the idea of this road being built, but you have to contrast the 3,000 people who have written in to the planning department objecting to the road, with the wider population. That's one per cent of the population of Shropshire so for the town council to seem to try and corral the move against the Conservative politicians in these divisions does not represent the general will of the people in Shropshire or Shrewsbury.
"There are many many people in other parts of the town who are seeing what is happening to Shrewsbury – it takes an hour to transfer from one end of the town to the other already. We have seen the huge rise in pollution in the town centre, due to the build up of congestion.
"We have to act like the Victorians, not just for ourselves but for future generations."
He added: "Some people say if you carry on with this motion to build this road you will lose your seat. I cannot allow a genuine but strong anti-North West Relief Road sentiment in these four divisions to destroy and overturn the collective will of all these bodies which are assessing what is in Shrewsbury's best long term economic interests."
