Council publishes relief road conditions ahead of crunch meeting

Shropshire Council will outline how it plans to protect water supplies in Shrewsbury as it tries to push through a controversial road-building project.

Council planning officers today(February 8) published a document containing 62 recommended conditions which need to be satisfied in order for work to begin on the North West Relief Road development, ahead of a committee meeting next week.

The conditions are the final step in the planning process for the project, which was given the green-light by Shropshire Council in October, and if approved will allow the road to go ahead subject to a full business case being submitted to the department for transport.

The 7 kilometer-long road, designed to connect the North and West parts of Shrewsbury, has met with strong local opposition from campaigners, and also with objections from the Environment Agency (EA), who wrote to the council following the approval of the planning application to reiterate their concerns on a possible risk to the town’s drinking water supply.

The supply draws its source from a borehole in the Shelton area of the town which the EA and Severn Trent Water say could be impacted by the proposed route, which runs over a ‘source protection zone’ designed to safeguard water quality.

Shropshire Council brushed aside those concerns when approving the planning permission, arguing they could be controlled by planning conditions, a point which was partially accepted by borehole operators Severn Trent Water, but disputed by the EA.

Severn Trent Water said they did not object to the principle of the application, but had “specific concerns” over a potential for the scheme to pollute water supplies at Shelton, and demanded to see how construction works would be managed, along with a plan for how the runoff from drainage and spillages from the road would be dealt with.

“The piling work involved poses notable risks to our groundwater abstractions, and we must have absolute clarity now on how the applicant will manage these risks during construction,” they said.

“If there was a need for us to shutdown Shelton WTW due to a water qualityissue caused by the construction or operation of the new road and
roundabout, that could not be mitigated by the existing water treatment processes, recovery of the supply so that we can continue to provide wholesome water to our customers could be very difficult.”

As part of the proposed conditions, Shropshire Council will be required to provide a drainage management plan showing how it will monitor and maintain the road to prevent contamination to the water supply.

An emergency response plan detailing how spillages from accidents would be managed has also been proposed, detailing how the site would be cleaned up and monitored to prevent pollution.

The council will also be required to show how they plan to manage water quality during piling works for a proposed viaduct over the river severn by producing a “turbidity protocol”, a system of monitoring the water quality at the site.

A condition to protect “retained trees” on the site was also recommended, stating that no uprooting or felling work could take place without written approval from the planning authority.

The committee will meet to discuss the recommendations on Thursday, February 15.