'Chainsaw massacre' demonstration promised for council's Halloween D-Day on Shrewsbury relief road

Extinction Rebellion Shrewsbury will call on Shropshire Council to ‘Stop The Chainsaw Massacre’ in a protest outside Shirehall as the North West Relief Road goes to a planning committee for a final decision on Halloween.

The protest, which will be held outside the Northern Planning Committee meeting at Shirehall, will feature a ‘chainsaw maniac’ in Halloween costume attacking the 550-year-old Darwin Oak.

Protesters will also hand out bottles of ‘Relief Road Water’ to councillors as they enter the meeting to highlight a potential risk the road poses to Shrewsbury’s drinking water supply.

The meeting will debate the planning application for the road on Tuesday.

An artist's impression of how the North West Relief Road's viaduct would look

Jamie Russell from Extinction Rebellion Shrewsbury said: ‘The North West Relief Road is an environmentally-destructive nightmare, so it’s fitting the planning meeting is on Halloween. If this road gets the go-ahead, councillors will be committing an unforgivable Shropshire chainsaw massacre.

"We will lose four kilometres of biodiverse hedgerows, over ten hectares of vital agricultural land and over a thousand trees, including several veterans like the 550-year-old Darwin Oak.

"This is the tree that the world’s most famous naturalist, Charles Darwin, sat under as a young man. There is no way to justify this in the midst of a climate and ecological emergency. Darwin must be spinning in his grave."

Protestors line the road of the proposed relief road in an early demonstration

Environmental concerns over the road plans had seen multiple organisations formally object to the NWRR, including the Woodland Trust, Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth, the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, and Jamie said, even, the council’s own ecology and tree teams.

"The Environment Agency, which has long-standing concerns over the risk of contaminating the borehole that supplies Shrewsbury with clean drinking water, says it is still ‘not sufficiently reassured’ about the council’s plans. Severn Trent Water has ‘agreed to disagree’ with the council over the issue and requested strict conditions be attached to any planning decision in favour of the road."

Campaigners argue that the NWRR runs counter to the council’s own climate emergency declaration in 2019 and the UK’s legally binding net zero pledges.

Jamie added: "The NWRR will create 48,000 tonnes of embedded carbon emissions from its construction, for an estimated annual operational ‘saving’ of 359 tonnes – meaning it won’t be carbon neutral for over 130 years. The NWRR also conflicts with the National Planning Policy Framework, which seeks to protect ancient trees from destruction.

"Shropshire Council is ignoring its own climate emergency declaration to build the NWRR. Every opposition party on the council has rejected the road because they know it is the wrong solution for the climate, nature, and Shrewsbury’s traffic problems.

"Only the Conservatives want it built. If the MP for Shrewsbury believes the NWRR is vital for the town, we call on him to be the one to take a chainsaw to the Darwin Oak. This is our Sycamore Gap moment. If we lose these trees, they are gone forever.’