Letter: Drop road plan to save cash

Letter: Shropshire Council leader Keith Barrow is asking his officers to "think the unthinkable" and to plan for 25 per cent budget cuts. Such cuts will be as difficult as they are deep, but there is one easy "thinkable" option open to the council.

Shropshire Council has budgeted £2,609,000 over the next three years for the design and development costs of the North West Relief Road. Building the road will later consume £102 million of which £15 million must be found from local funds.

Does anyone really believe that this road will be built in the foreseeable future? All political parties are committed to deep expenditure cuts sooner or later.

It is very unlikely that any government will allocate £87 million for this road at a time when it will be making cuts in education and social budgets.

Neither is it likely that any government will be willing to throw money at such an environmentally controversial project in a period of political uncertainty.

It is time for Shropshire Council to admit that its plans for the North West Relief Road have reached a dead end. It can then immediately free up £2.6 million to spend on more worthwhile projects that will bring greater benefit to the residents of Shropshire.

This is a "thinkable" cut. It is one the council can and should make now.

Andy Boddington

CPRE Shropshire