Auditors blast North West Relief Road management as costs soar and council director departs

In their annual report on Shropshire Council’s financial management, auditors Grant Thorton have condemned the management of the NWRR project, the costs for which have ballooned from £87 million to £188 million. Only £87.1 million is available for the scheme and it is unlikely the new government will bail the project out.

The four mile stretch of road has long been controversial. It has been driven forward relentlessly despite rising costs and increasing concerns of its impact on the environment. The carbon offsetting required to compensate for the construction.

Following a complaint from Lib Dem councillor David Vasmer, the auditors have identified poor management of the project, a failure that goes right to the top of the council. If the road does not proceed, the costs will be £23 million in addition to the £45 million already spent. If the road goes ahead, the council plans to raid half the money meant for road projects around the county over the next seven years to bail out the scheme.

The Director of Place, Mark Barrow, who has been leading the project is leaving the council at short notice.

I have always opposed the North West Relief Road, initially because of the environmental destruction it will cause and the lesson of history that building more roads increases traffic and any congestion relief is transitory. Recently, it has become clear that it poses a threat to Shrewsbury’s water supply and is ruinously expensive. In the last week, the council has admitted that the carbon costs of the road have significantly increased. Better Shrewsbury Transport says the project’s carbon costs will be over five times the emissions stated when the road was approved by the Northern Planning Committee and the road won’t be “net zero” for 389 years without expensive offsetting.

The auditor’s report concentrates on the financial management of the road and says this is the primary reason for the council’s governance being RAG rated RED, at risk of failure or causing financial problems for the council.

Not all documentation requested by the auditors was supplied to them. That makes me wonder if there are more horrors that have not been revealed. No NWRR Executive Board minutes for 2024 were given to the external auditors, despite this being recommended by internal auditors. The chief finance officer (S151 Officer) was not invited to recent meetings, although he was independently briefed. That carries the risk the the briefing was selective. Grant Thorton recommends that the council leader and the S151 officer are invited to future executive board meetings.

The cabinet portfolio holder, Dan Morris, did however attend and must have been fully aware of the ballooning costs and the difficulties in funding the road. The road’s problems were discussed informally in cabinet but no records of these meetings in 2024 were provided to the auditors. The formal cabinet has not discussed the project since  2017. It was told last July that the cost had significantly increased but no estimate was given.

The project is not included on the council’s formal risk register, hiding the risk from councillors and the public.

Delegated spending powers were given to the executive board but it exceeded those when it spent beyond the budget approved by council. The council argued that it had no obligation to report on the soaring costs to cabinet and full council between the approval of the Outline Business Case in December 2017 and the Full Business Case in December 2024. That’s a full seven years without public accountability. The auditors say there should have been regular financial updates to the cabinet and council, including how to deal with the cost overruns and costs for aborting the project.

Shropshire Council will receive £138 million from the Department for Transport Local Transport Fund between 2025 and 2032, but this money is to fund project across the whole county. The NWRR’s cost overruns would consume at least half this budget. It is unclear whether the money can be used for for the NWRR and it certainly would not be in the best interests of the county outside Shrewsbury.

David Vasmer, Lib Dem councillor for Underdale, triggered the auditor’s investigation into the NWRR through a series of questions. Responding to Grant Thorton’s conclusions, he told Dominic Robertson of the Shropshire Star:

“As I suspected Shropshire Council has once again been guilty of financial mismanagement. I complained to the external auditor about the council’s failure to assess the financial damage that could occur if the North West Relief Road was cancelled. The auditors’ response was very critical of the council. It backed my view stating that the council does not have a robust funding plan approved and in place.”

Mike Streetly of Better Shrewsbury Transport also told the Shropshire Star:

“The project team’s secrecy has extended to a total lack of proper oversight. The board that was supposed to be monitoring the NWRR’s costs didn’t keep meeting notes. Key personnel weren’t invited to attend meetings. And the senior officer in charge of the project has now taken voluntary redundancy… Residents should be absolutely furious. Those who want the NWRR have been duped. There is no blank cheque from Westminster and there never was. Those who opposed the road because they knew it was unaffordable have been proven right.”

Why then has Shropshire Council pressed ahead with the road despite its soaring costs and the greater awareness of the environmental damage it will cause? For the Conservatives, the NWRR is a commitment carved into stone. It is almost blasphemous for them to challenge the financial and environmental costs of the road. In any event, Conservative councillors are instructed how to vote on decisions on the NWRR. What their leader says goes no matter what their own opinion is or what their constituents think. That is one of the reasons governance and decision making at the council is so poor.

In the polite, stilted language used on these occasions, council leaders are not linking the departure of the Director of Place, Mark Barrow to the audit report. However, if they did not want that link to be drawn, it was unfortunate timing to announce Barrow’s short notice departure not long after the audit report was received. The departure leaves one of the councils’ biggest directorates without a director. The assistant director left the council a short while back. Another director has taken on oversight of the Place Directorate even though it is far from their field. All this suggests a panic reaction to the audit report and a failure of leadership in the council.

Surely the council leader, Andy Begley, knew about the lack of proper oversight of NWRR project, the near impossibility of raising enough money, the possibility of project failure and the growing evidence of the environmental damage caused by the road? Isn’t the job of the chief executive not just to know but to take early remedial action? In the commercial sector, other chief executives have been fired or have accepted that they must leave in similar circumstances. Begley should tell councillors and council taxpayers what he knew of the problems with one of the council’s flagship projects before the audit report. If he didn’t know, he should go.

The portfolio holder for highways, the Conservative member for Burnell Dan Morris,  was also regularly briefed. His fate will lie in the hands of the electorate at the May 2025 local elections, though it is difficult to see how he can continue as portfolio holder given the failure to manage the biggest project on his watch. Daniel Kawczynski, the former MP for Shrewsbury, was dismissed by the electorate in part for his support for the NWRR. Other local Conservative politicians may face the same fate next May over their reckless support and lack of scrutiny of the road.

As things stand, it will cost £23 million to cancel the road and at least £80 million to go ahead. That is the decision that the council needs to make urgently. Democratically, not behind the scenes.