Shropshire Council has declined to disclose the modelling it is using to gain support among public sector leaders for a controversial relief road scheme.
Last week the highway authority published a press release, which it said showed that the Shrewsbury North West Relief Road (NWRR) is ‘gathering strong support for the benefits it will deliver to key local organisations, from healthcare providers and emergency services to public transport operators in the county’.
These organisations included Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital (SATH) NHS Trust, which it said highlighted the road’s critical importance in improving access to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, 'expressing that the reduced journey times and congestion will benefit patients, visitors, and hospital staff alike'.
SATH interim chief executive Jo Williams was also quoted as stating that journey times to the hospital, especially from the north and east of the area, and Telford, will be reduced and that reductions in congestion in many residential neighbourhoods to the north of the area will improve air quality.
Highways asked the council and SATH what information these comments were based on.
SATH has not provided a response or explanation.
Dan Morris, cabinet member for highways, said that the modelling produced in 2017 for the scheme’s outline business case (OBC) ‘showed significant time savings between the north and west of Shrewsbury compared to scenarios where the NWRR is not built, as well as other benefits including improved air quality in Shrewsbury, fewer road traffic collisions, and increased investment in the county’.
He added that, as part of drawing up the scheme’s full business case (FBC) new modelling had been conducted, in line with updated Department for Transport guidance and some of the figures have been updated, stressing that ‘the substance of the business case for the NWRR remains unaffected’.
Cllr Morris said the council had met with key stakeholders to ‘dispel some of the myths around the impact of the NWRR’ and that 'these stakeholders have been shown excerpts from the traffic, collision, and journey-time modelling that has been undertaken as part of the FBC'.
He acknowledged that these stakeholders had no industry expertise and had issued statements in support of the road ‘based on the information available in the draft FBC’.
Cllr Morris claimed that the behind-the-scenes briefings in which the council showed stakeholders selected highlights of its data were in response to ‘misinformation’ about the road from opponents including Campaign group Better Shrewsbury Transport (BeST).
Although Cllr Morris suggested that the highway authority had generated new traffic data, a Shropshire Council planning officer told campaigners that the ‘re-run’ of the traffic modelling involved re-use of the current and published NWRR traffic model outputs, verified for FBC submission against revised government carbon assessment requirements, but with the traffic model and outputs unchanged.
Highways asked Shropshire Council if it would disclose the traffic, collision, and journey-time modelling that was undertaken as part of the FBC but claimed that it could not send extracts or drafts from the FBC externally until it is before the full Council later this year. This is despite sharing extracts with stakeholders through its public relations campaign.
BeST has also called on the council to share the data.
Mike Streetly of BeST said: 'We were very surprised to see senior leaders from public bodies coming out in support of this project since the traffic modelling that would support their claims hasn’t been publicly released by the council.
‘The only traffic assessment available on the planning portal is from 2021 based on 2017 traffic figures. That report certainly doesn’t support claims that the NWRR will reduce journey times near the hospital for instance, so what has convinced these senior leaders about the road?’
Mr Streetly added: ‘The 2021 Transport Assessment suggests that the A5/B4386/B4386/Mytton Oak Road roundabout – where ambulances come onto Mytton Oak Road from the A5 – will see increased queues if the NWRR is built, with one arm forecast to operate over capacity.
‘Similarly the council’s own figures show that the NWRR will worsen queuing at the Mytton Oak Road/Gains Park Way junction and at the Racecourse Lane/Mytton Oak Road Roundabout. This doesn’t represent a significant improvement in access to the hospital, so it’s surprising to see SaTH’s interim chief executive responding so positively to the project.
‘We find it very concerning that confidential data is apparently being shared with public bodies, but not with the Shropshire councillors who sit on the planning committee, nor with the taxpayers who are ultimately funding it.’
On Tuesday, the council’s Northern Planning Committee backed a change in the scheme’s planning permission that will allow it to delay making the scheme ‘carbon neutral’ – by offsetting in the UK and abroad – by 2050.
