Money still being spent on relief road project

Money is still being spent on the North West Relief Road (NWRR) project despite it being paused – however, Shropshire Council says it’s a significant drop.

The local authority confirmed on Thursday (June 26) that the scheme – now estimated to cost £215million – has been halted until a formal meeting his held with the Government.

Department for Transport (DfT) officials have already told the Liberal Democrat-run administration that there would be no more funding for the project and that would would have to be stopped before further discussions could take place.

However, the council’s Audit Committee was told that some “baseline work” will still continue to ensure that, whatever happens, it doesn’t have a detrimental impact on the project.

“There are some costs that are still being incurred, like monitoring various things linked to the planning process,” said Andy Wilde, assistant director for infrastructure at Shropshire Council.

“However, what we can see is a very significant drop in expenditure off the back of the status of the project.

“I can reassure the committee that the expenditure being spent is absolute baseline and it’s critical for the planning application should anything proceed with the project.

“That’s under review and is being fed in as part of the governance in terms of checking finance. The team managing the project have that ongoing dialogue and reporting into the governance board around that. That is something that is being scrutinised int his moment in time.”

“On the back of those meetings [with ministers] we’ll decide a way forward.”

James Walton, executive director with responsibility for finance, added: “In terms of the expenditure, that would be capped at just under £39m and would take us to June 30. We won’t be going beyond that time period and cost without confirmation.

“There is work going on the ground, but that is just very basic testing which will continue beyond June 30. However, the cost associated with that is still below the figure that is being capped at.

“It’s significantly below that at the moment and won’t go above it even if continued for several weeks or months before a final decision is taken.

“In terms of any other costs associated with that, it will stop.”

Councillor Duncan Kerr, who was chairing the meeting, said that, while he is very appreciative of the work that’s being done to have better goverance and management of the project, it does lead him to think, ‘how did it ever get to be so bad in the first place and why didn’t we notice it earlier?’

“I hope we’ve learned some lessons about, how do we ensure what is a key project for the council never ends up with that situation [again],” said Cllr Kerr.

In response, Mr Wilde said: “I’m confident, in this moment in time, I’ve got the structure and governance arrangements in place that gives me and the organisation the confidence it needs. And pending the outcome of the decision making, we will then need to review whether that governance arrangement is appropriate and what comes next.”