It was a road to nowhere that will now go nowhere. Championed by the ousted Conservative administration, the 4 mile road would have cost more than £50 million a mile. It was environmentally destructive and could have damaged Shrewsbury’s water supply. The Darwin Oak would have been felled and precious ecology including Hencott Pool damaged for ever. That alone should have been sufficient reason for scrapping the proposal.
The road reached a dead end today, when the new Liberal Democrat administration paused the road because there is not enough money. The shortfall is £176 million. There never was enough money to build the road despite the previous administration’s assurances that the government would pay. The road won’t now go ahead. However, a formal decision will need to be made by full council.
Shropshire Council media release.
Work paused on the Shrewsbury North West Relief Road
Shropshire Council has paused all work on the proposed Shrewsbury North West Relief Road (NWRR) following a meeting with one of the scheme’s main funding bodies.
Shropshire Council’s Leader Heather Kidd and Deputy Leader Alex Wagner met with officers from the Department for Transport (DfT) earlier this week (Monday 23 June 2025) to discuss the scheme, seek clarity about funding and explore options with regards to its future.
The cost of constructing the road was originally estimated at £87.2m. Previously agreed funding is made up from:
- DfT Large Local Majors Funding – £54.4m
- The former Marches Local Partnership (LEP) funding – £4.2m
- S106 developer contributions – £8.6m
- Balance funded by Shropshire Council – £19.8m (NWRR) and £0.2m for the Oxon Link Road (OLR)
Due to planning delays, significant increases in global construction costs, and concerns with the scheme’s governance arrangements, cited as a ‘significant weakness’ by external auditors, the forecast costs of the scheme have increased substantially since the Outline Business Case (OBC). This means that there is a significant funding gap to complete the scheme.
Following an extensive procurement exercise, the scheme’s total cost, some eight years later, is now £215m.
During the meeting officers from the DfT confirmed that they would not award any more money than had been originally allocated to the project. Furthermore, the Local Transport Fund of £136.4m, originally mooted by the previous administration to fund the scheme, has been replaced with a Local Transport Grant totalling only £48m.
However, they also confirmed that the council would need to cancel work on the road before a formal discussion could proceed with Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood MP, the Department for Transport and other parts of central government about the £39m it has already spent on the scheme.
Councillor Kidd said:
“Through our conversations with the Department for Transport, it was made very clear that no more funding would be allocated to the scheme. This makes it simply unaffordable.
“As you can imagine, there are many implications for cancelling the road however we really have no choice.
“If we were to keep spending money by progressing the scheme, the funding gap would be huge – over £176 million that we really don’t have. As well as this, there are no guarantees that this cost wouldn’t increase further as time goes on.
“Borrowing that level of money is not a serious option given our financial position and the implications it would have for the rest of our budget and services.
“It’s because of this that we’ve made the decision to pause work on the scheme and machinery is now being taken off site.
“We now need to meet with the Minister to discuss the money the Council has already spent on the scheme and find an agreeable way forward.”
The meeting with the Minster is currently being planned.
Although the intention is to cancel the scheme due to its unaffordability, a final decision would need to be considered through a meeting of Cabinet and Full Council.
That money saved could repair a lot of potholes.
What a relief – this was a woeful project that seemed so wrong in every way. Hopefully some of the saved money can be used for the greater benefit of the whole county. Common sense at last!
It should have been halted many years ago. Indeed it should never have been more than a chat in the canteen. The useless Cons could easily have scrapped it long ago, instead it is part of the reason they have been scrapped.
I think it’s a shame it’s been abandoned. It means that all traffic between the north of Shrewsbury and the West will permanently need to travel up to 8 unnecessary miles involving unnecessary carbon emissions and congestion at pinch-points on A49 and A5. It also hugely hampers the chances of transformational traffic-feeing, planning and environmental improvements in Shrewsbury town centre. The proposal was poorly managed and never properly integrated into a wider vision for Shrewsbury as it should have been.
I suggest you read the Shrewsbury Movement Strategy for ideas on traffic reduction in the town centre. We have other ideas too. The P&R frequency has been already been increased to 12 minutes. Other plans are in development but this is only week four of the new administration and the focus has been on negotiations with the DfT.
I note there are discussions to be had with the Minister regarding the £39 million already spent but what is the exact aim of that discussion from the Council’s point of view?
Government grant rules are that if a scheme is not built, a council must repay the grant. But the last administration pent all £39m plus millions of its own monesy for a road that did not, and still does not, have planning permission. The discussions with the minister is for a waiver from the rules as in the case of the Norwich Northwest Link Road. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg17yk03geo