Better Shrewsbury Transport

02/04/2026

This is something to watch out for - what's the betting that council officers are eying up this fund for the Oxon Link Road?

Fund will support transport links so stalled housing and employment sites can go ahead.

02/04/2026

https://www.shropshirelive.com/news/2026/04/02/campaigners-submit-details-of-chronic-mismanagement-to-council-ahead-of-nwrr-review/

Better Shrewsbury Transport has submitted details of ‘chronic mismanagement’ of the North West Relief Road ahead of a council review into the project that begins this month.

01/04/2026

This is yet another example showing that these low value rural road projects are real zombies that keep on coming back from the dead! This Hereford bypass idea was dropped by the previous council administration who had carried out a really thorough assessment of the situation and concluded that a bypass was not the solution as almost all the traffic in the affected areas was local and would remain (and probably increase) after the bypass was built. Instead it would be much more effective to focus on offering people cheap, safe and reliable alternatives (Herefordshire's bus service is as bad as Shropshire's) - see table from stakeholder engagement below. Yet 6 years later, here we are again with the launch of this laughably weak campaign ffor a Hereford Western bypass - they even admit that the Benefit:Cost ratio is poor (only 1.8-2.5 after almost certainly being massaged upwards. This is much worse value for money than investment in Active travel for instance BCR of 6-8 is typical). This scheme will never get to the top of the list for national funding and is performance politics at its worse. However, this just shows us how important it is for us to bury the NWRR properly through the proposed Task and Finish Group.

https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/back-the-bypass?

https://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/documents/s50090720/Appendix%201%20Hereford%20Transport%20Review%20Technical%20Report%20WSP%20November%202020.pdf

01/03/2026

Just heard that the planning application for the NWRR has been withdrawn and had confirmed that if they do decide to progress OLR they'll have to start again from scratch. Combined with the vote to cancel the NWRR project on Thursday this means that this campaign has achieved half of its objectives (stopping a financially and environmentally disastrous road). Focus in future will be on supporting Shrewsbury Moves - the town's transport strategy that shows how we could really reduce congestion and improve people's lives.

An investigation will take place into the handling of Shrewsbury's now cancelled North West Relief Road Project.

27/02/2026

A wasted decade when we could have been focussed on doing things that actually reduce congestion and improve air quality and people's health.
Aug 2015 - Outline Business Case for the Oxon Link road (OLR) - road set to cost £13M
Nov 2016 - Dept for Transport (DfT) gives Shropshire Council £1M to prepare bus. case for North West Relief Road (NWRR exc. OLR)
Dec 2017 - outline Business Case for the NWRR exc. OLR
Jul 2018 - planning application for OLR
Mar 2019 - DfT puts up £54.4M for NWRR (exc. OLR) out of £71M (i.e. £84M for combined scheme) with council to meet remainder and any overspend
Aug 2019 - OLR planning app. withdrawn and scheme combined with NWRR
Feb 2021 - NWRR planning application submitted
Autumn 2022 - costs to date £12M. Council realises total scheme cost has risen to £140M (but refuses to admit this as it is 'commercially sensitive')
Feb 2023 - Revised environmental impact assessment issued to try and address serious concerns by Environment Agency re risk to town's water supply
Mar 2023 - Costs to date £22M and total costs rise to £180M (still not publicly admitted)
Oct 2023 - Tory govt. claims NWRR is 'fully funded' from scrapping HS2
Oct 2023 - Northern Planning Committee (NPC) approves NWRR application subject to conditions in face of ongoing objections from Environment Agency
Feb 2024 - NPC approves planning conditions for NWRR (Environment Agency still not satisfied that risk to water supply has been addressed)
Mar 2924 - Council launches tender exercise for NWRR with guide price of £110M
Nov 2024 - Highly critical external audit of NWRR project - Costs to date £35M and total costs now estimated at around £180M
Nov 2024 - Council submits updated carbon impact assessment showing that not only will the road emit massive amounts of CO2 on construction but there will be more CO2 emissons from traffic than without the scheme
Jan 2025 - NPC approves CO2 calculations even though they have no plan on how to mitigate these impacts and the scheme would blow council's carbon reduction plans out of water
Feb 2025 - Council releases Full Bus Case for NWRR showing total cost has risen to £215M (inc. £53M for OLR) - no plans for where the extra £151M needed to fund scheme could come from
Apr 2025 - Spend to date now £38M
Mar 2025 - Local elections. Lib Dems take over from Tories
Jun 2025 - DfT confirms there is no extra money for NWRR. Council pauses all further work on scheme
Feb 2026 - Shropshire Council votes to cancel NWRR. OLR will be subject to further options appraisal

Shrewsbury's North West Relief Road has been officially cancelled by councillors.

27/02/2026

Well this is offically it for the NWRR (for now)! The OLR limps on, but we understand there is no budget for it in the next 5 years so that would be a future battle. Probably have to hold on for the OLR report to see what that says but, for now, let's say WELL DONE ALL INVOLVED and thanks for all your support to the very many people who submitted objections, wrote letters, countered misinformation on the internet, ploughed through thousands of pages of WSP's reports, protested, fund raised and did all the boring admin that keeps a show like this on the road.
If you'd like a positive campaign to be involved in now then I think that there will be a lot of work to do to make sure that the Shrewsbury Moves strategy is implemented and gives us the low traffic future we all want.

Shrewsbury's North West Relief Road has been officially cancelled by councillors.

25/02/2026

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/politics/2026/02/24/shrewsburys-north-west-relief-road-to-be-officially-cancelled-but-oxon-link-road-survives/

Shrewsbury's controversial North West Relief Road is set to be officially cancelled by councillors.

25/02/2026

The Andy Wilde report on the NWRR is now available herehttps://shropshire.gov.uk/committee-services/documents/s43817/North%20West%20Relief%20Road-12022026%201003%203.pdf Recommendations 3.1. That the North West Relief Road (DfT funded project) is formally cancelled. Costs to date as per this table

24/02/2026

Well, after 7 years the end seems to be in sight for the NWRR. However, SC seems determined to press on with OLR despite the cost (£54M), CO2 emissions and environmental damage so, until the whoole scheme is dead we need to keep on fighting.

Shropshire Council says the scheme became unaffordable after government funding for it stopped.

07/02/2026

Restore direct trains to London from Wrexham, Shropshire and the Midlands

28/11/2025

The end is looking pretty close for Shropshire Council. Will be interesting to see in Cabinet approve >£500K expenditure on OLR options on 7th Dec

A councillor has questioned why an external auditor’s recommendations about Shropshire Council’s finances were not spotted before.