Shropshire Council has admitted it has had no official communication from the Government to support its expectation that a controversial new road will be ‘fully funded’, as it tendered its construction with a price estimate of £110m.
The highway authority was also unable to say when it will get further clarification on the issue, despite claiming that further guidance was ‘imminent’.
The council has so far been offered £54m of Large Local Majors funding for the Shrewsbury North West Relief Road (NWRR), based on a cost at outline business case (OBC) stage of £80m.
It has admitted that the costs have risen since but has refused to publish a new estimate, although campaigners claim it could now cost £200m.
The authority has now published a contract notice for a main contractor to construct the project, which will provide a new, single carriageway road linking the northern and western parts of Shrewsbury.
It will also include a new bridge over the River Severn and its flood plain, a new bridge over the Shrewsbury-Chester railway line and will connect the A5 at Welshpool Road roundabout in the west to the Ellesmere Road roundabout in the north.
The notice values the construction work – rather than the entire project – at £110m.
In October, transport secretary Mark Harper said in a TV interview that the Government would fully fund the road, although his department subsequently made clear that under its Network North plan to redirect cash from HS2, the road is due to receive 100% of the OBC cost.
The council said last month that its officers are in regular contact with the DfT and ‘have been given no reason to believe that Government support for the Shrewsbury NWRR will be anything other than that announced by the Secretary of State’.
It added: ‘Further guidance on this is expected imminently.’ Highways asked the authority if it would disclose the relevant communications from the DfT.
Its cabinet member for highways, Dan Morris, said: ‘Although we have not received any official communication regarding promise of funding, we are in regular contact with the DfT, again adding again that the council had ‘been given no reason to believe that Government support for the NWRR will be anything other than that announced by the Secretary of State on TV, fully funded’.
Asked when the imminent guidance would be published, a spokesperson clarified that this was to come from the DfT and that the council was unable to say when it would be received.
The council said a revised figure will be shared as part of the full business case, which will be considered by the council before being submitted to the Department for Transport (DfT) in December 2024.
In a written parliamentary answer published in January, the road was the only one of 10 Midlands roads eligible for DfT funding where a cost was not stated. This was stated to be subject to Shropshire Council’s procurement exercise.
