Protest held as Shropshire Council discuss relief road
The council's published a revised business case for the North West Relief Road in Shrewsbury
Last updated 27th Feb 2025
Pallbearers dressed in black carried a child-sized coffin to The Guildhall in Shrewsbury to highlight Shropshire Council’s decision “to kill off its climate emergency declaration.”
Around 60 people watched the mock funeral ahead of a full council meeting that was taking place on Thursday (February 27) morning.
Shropshire Council pledged to be net zero by 2030 after declaring a climate emergency in May 2019. However, last month the Northern Planning Committee signed off the huge increase of carbon emissions that the North West Relief Road (NWRR) would generate, which won’t be offset until 2050.
In a piece of street theatre, two people representing councillors tore up the council’s climate emergency plan and tossed shreds into the open coffin.
Then to the sound of a solemn drumbeat, people silently placed children’s clothes and toys into the coffin. The crowd marked the moment with a minute of silence.
Hannah Peters, an artist from Oswestry who joined the protest, said: “Shropshire Council is failing us. It’s no good saying, ‘what about China?’ when our own county council can’t even make relatively small emissions cuts to ensure we are tackling this crisis in line with the science.
“By greenlighting the NWR and abandoning the promise made to residents back in 2019, Shropshire Tories are proving they do not care about us, our children, or their future. They should simply rip up their climate emergency declaration and tell residents they’ve given up.”
The protest comes after the council has failed to make significant progress to achieve its net zero pledge. In fact, the council has been going in reverse.
Chrissy Bridge, a retired science teacher from Shrewsbury, added: “I joined together with at least 60 other local people to tell the council how betrayed we feel that they have torn up their climate pledges and kicked them down the road for another 20 years.
“And they are doing this at a time when the consequences of climate breakdown are becoming more obvious – my neighbours in Shrewsbury have had the worst flooding in 40 years and elsewhere in Shropshire, repeated floods have devastated people’s homes, businesses and farms. How can we trust the council to act in our best interests?”
The protest came on the same day the council published its draft Full Business Case (FBC).
The council say that the project would cost an estimated maximum of £215million (including the cost of the Oxon Link Road) over 10 years.
The benefits the scheme will generate, say the council, are: shorter journey times, reduced congestion in Shrewsbury and surrounding villages, reduced congestion on the town’s bypass and smaller rural roads, supporting the Shrewsbury Moves Strategy and attracting new investment and growing Shropshire’s economy
The FBC, updated from the November 2024 draft, will need approval from Full Council before the scheme can be submitted to Government.
However, because of the local elections in May, it is not expected to come to council to later this year.