Councillors have accidentally voted to support £95 million of extra borrowing towards Shrewsbury’s North West Relief Road after the figure was mistakenly included in a report.
An artist's impression of what the North West Relief Road could look like
At the meeting at Shirehall, councillors were asked to approve changes to this year’s capital strategy – a list of one-off projects and infrastructure schemes that are funded separately from day-to-day services, usually through sale of assets, grants and borrowing. Labour group leader Councillor Julia Buckley said: “We are being asked to find an extra £95m with no information.Councillor Buckley said repaying the loan at current interest rates would mean another £5m of service cutbacks every year to fund the repayments.
But it was only after councillors voted through the changes to the capital strategy that the blunder was picked up. She said: “The opposition parties all voted against such expenditure but the Conservatives voted blindly to spend this additional £95.3m without understanding it, questioning it, or having any information about it.
Lib Dem councillor and transport campaigner Rob Wilson said had been asking for an updated cost estimate since he was elected in 2021, to no avail.
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