Shropshire Council is facing bankruptcy over a £200million relief road that was never built. The council said it may need to borrow up to £100million to avoid running out of money by April 2026. A report states that one of the biggest threats to the council’s financial security is the funding of the £215million North West Relief Road, which is now cancelled. The scheme was originally put forward by the previous Conservative administration to reduce congestion and pollution in the town centre.
A staggering £39million had already been spent on the four-mile-long bypass around Shrewsbury, including £22 million on consultants. However, the new Liberal Democrat administration pulled the plug this summer, claiming the failed project was no longer affordable. Liberal Democrat leader Heather Kidd said the council would likely seek additional funding from the Government as it struggles to balance its finances. She added that paying the Government back would “tip the council over the edge”.
The scheme was opposed by opposition parties and environmental groups, while a petition to save a 550-year-old tree ‘The Darwin Oak’ – named after Charles Darwin – attracted more than 100,000 signatures. The previous council had launched a programme of enablement works, spending £21.875m on designer engineer consultancy fees and £7.975m on ‘pre-construction contracts’.
Although the Department for Transport (DfT) awarded the council a grant for the project, it later confirmed that no additional funding beyond the original allocation would be provided. Kidd warned that if the DfT were to demand repayment of the grant – worth up to £54.4m – the council would be forced to borrow tens of millions of pounds.
Speaking to the BBC, she said that repaying the 2019 grant would “tip the council over the edge.”
The council was among 29 local authorities granted Exceptional Financial Support last winter, sharing a total of £1.5 billion.
An independently chaired “improvement board” is being established to oversee and scrutinise council spending before a decision is made on whether to seek government assistance. The council aims to have the board in place by the next meeting of council leaders on 15 October. Meanwhile, campaigners are calling for an inquiry into what went wrong with the road project.