NWRR

Campaign Against the NW ‘Relief’ Road

The group can be contacted on or by e-mail to

Geoff Black (Convenor) on (Mobile )

4 Shelton Park, The Mount, Shrewsbury SY3 8BL

Protest by 20th July 2007 - see NWRR newsletters

NWRR and Transport Innovation Fund Consultation Dates.
A big public consultation had been planned by Shropshire County Council for early June. This has now been delayed until the autumn. The decision on the NWRR scheduled for Sept 26th will therefore be also delayed, possibly until the new year.

STOP PRESS
Despite a lack of public consultation the Dept for Transport have asked Shropshire County Council to submit an outline business case for the Shrewsbury TiF bid in July. This will contain proposals for congestion charging and the NWRR. The only chance to comment on this business case will probably be at the Environment Scrutiny Panel meeting, 5pm July 12th at Shirehall. Anyone is welcome to attend but to speak you must book in advance. The business case will then go to a special meeting of the full County Council which will probably be on July 20th.
For up to date details see, www.shropshire.gov.uk or www.shrewsfoe.org.uk

The preferred route for the NWRR is now the more northerly option which keeps away from the old river bed and crosses over the railway line by Hencott Farm. Whilst this route will have less effect on the old river bed it will put the road at the top of the hill so increasing its wider impacts and taking it though the wonderful copse at Crosshill and very close to Hencott Pool. This pool is an SSSI but is in poor condition, the Shropshire Wildlife Trust have expressed deep concerns about taking the route so close to it. This route also opens up a large amount of land by Ellesmere Rd for future housing development. However of course there’s a long way to go yet. The progress of the road depends entirely on the Transport Innovation Fund bid at the moment. Details of the other elements of this bid are no clearer yet but that hasn’t stopped opposition to it growing with headlines in every copy of the Chronicle. Our view is that we’ll decide our stance on congestion charging when the details are available, if they can come up with a viable scheme we’d be happy to support it but we’ll continue to insist that the NWRR isn’t an essential part of the package. Even if the TiF bid is successful and contains the NWRR there will still be a planning inquiry before the scheme can progress although there are concerns about Government plans to weaken the inquiry system. One interesting thing about the coverage in the papers is how many people insist that Shrewsbury doesn’t have a congestion problem, including many who are active supporters of the NWRR. How on earth they can justify spending £70million on an environmentally destructive road scheme when there isn’t a congestion problem for it to solve defeats us. Note - To find NWRR articles in the FoE newsletters, use our search facility