A report on the future of the Shrewsbury North West Relief Road (NWRR) will be presented to a meeting of Shropshire Council鈥檚 full council tomorrow (26th February 2026). The report will recommend to council the cancellation of the NWRR due to it being unaffordable.
Costs for the planned 6.4 km single-carriageway bypass for Shrewsbury have been put at between 拢162m and 拢215m, with 拢32m already sunk into the scheme. The cost estimate in 2019 was only 拢71m.
The council鈥檚 consulting engineer WSP, has been paid 拢24.4m for work that it has done on the scheme to date, while Balfour Beatty was paid 拢5.1m for managing site investigation and piling works and Keir got 拢2.9m for overseeing later phases.
Work on the proposed relief road has been paused since June 2025, after the Department for Transport said that no further government funding would be made available for the scheme.
The council said that NWRR refers only to the part-funded Department for Transport (DfT) section of the road from Holyhead Road to Battlefield. The western section (A5 Churncote to Holyhead Road, also known as the Oxon Link Road section) is currently subject to a separate assessment of options.
Campaign group Better Shrewsbury Transport (BeST) welcomed the imminent cancellation of the Shrewsbury NWRR but is continuing its campaign against the Oxon Link Road (OLR) section of the scheme.
BeST spokesperson Mike Streetly said: 鈥淭he news that the NWRR has been officially cancelled is a victory for all those people across Shropshire who tirelessly campaigned against this environmentally and financially disastrous road scheme. BeST has been warning since 2019 that the road was not only environmentally destructive but would be too expensive to build and after seven years of campaigning, we have been proved correct. The previous Conservative administrations refused to listen to sense, resulting in over 拢32m being wasted, money that Shropshire Council now has to repay to central government in the form of a costly loan. Meanwhile, seven years have been wasted when we could have been more effectively addressing transport issues in the town through other measures. Former Tory councillors should hang their heads in shame. However, this announcement has a sting in its tail. The council鈥檚 ill-judged decision to continue looking into the Oxon Link Road risks repeating the same mistakes all over again. Haven鈥檛 we learned anything?鈥�