Shrewsbury North West Relief Road approved
That's despite many objecting the decision
Shrewsbury’s controversial North West Relief Road has been approved.
It was passed by Shropshire Council’s Northern Planning Committee after a four-hour meeting at Shirehall and was passed narrowly by a vote of six to 5.
The vote was conditional on the conditions relating to the application coming back to the committee for approval.
An effort to defer the application, proposed by Lib Dem Committee member Councillor David Vasmer, and supported by Green Party Councillor Julian Dean failed by six votes to five.
Meanwhile - approximately 200 people from Extinction Rebellion Shrewsbury gathered outside Shirehall today to call on Shropshire Council to ‘Stop The Shropshire Chainsaw Massacre’, as the North West Relief Road went before the Planning Committee on Halloween.
The protest featured a ‘chainsaw maniac’ in Halloween costume attacking the iconic 550 year old Darwin Oak, as well as bottles of contaminated ‘Relief Road Water’ highlighting the risk the road poses to Shrewsbury’s drinking water supply.
Jamie Russell from Extinction Rebellion Shrewsbury says: ‘The North West Relief Road is an environmentally-destructive nightmare, so it’s fitting the planning meeting is on Halloween.
‘We will lose 4km of biodiverse hedgerows; over ten hectares of vital agricultural land; and over a thousand trees including several “irreplaceable” veterans like the 550 year old Darwin Oak. This is the tree that the world’s most famous naturalist, Charles Darwin, sat under as a young man. There is no way to justify this in the midst of a climate and ecological emergency. Darwin must be spinning in his grave.’
Environmental concerns over the road plans have seen multiple organisations formally object to the NWRR including the Woodland Trust, Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth, the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, and even the council’s own Ecology and Tree Teams.
The Environment Agency, which has long-standing concerns over the risk of contaminating the borehole that supplies Shrewsbury with clean drinking water, says it is still ‘not sufficiently reassured’ about the council’s plans. Severn Trent Water has ‘agreed to disagree’ with the council over the issue and requested strict conditions be attached to any planning decision in favour of the road.
Campaigners argue that the NWRR runs counter to the council’s own climate emergency declaration in 2019 and the UK’s legally binding net zero pledges. The NWRR will create 48,000 tonnes of embedded carbon emissions from its construction, for an estimated annual operational ‘saving’ of 359 tonnes – meaning it won’t be carbon neutral for over 130 years. The NWRR also conflicts with the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which seeks to protect ancient trees from destruction.