NHS, fire service and more announce support for Shrewsbury North West Relief Road
Shrewsbury’s North West Relief Road (NWRR), a transformative infrastructure project for Shropshire, 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.
Together, the comments of the organisations, who provide critical services that directly support the local population, confirm the vital role of the NWRR in providing a comprehensive solution to ease congestion, improve safety, and create a more sustainable transport network.
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust 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.
Jo Williams, Interim Chief Executive of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals (SATH) NHS Trust, commented:
“The North West Relief Road will significantly improve access to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for our patients and staff. Journey times to the hospital, especially from the north and east of the area, and Telford, will be reduced. This will directly support people to access urgent and emergency care services and the thousands of patients each year who use our outpatient services.
“The shorter journey times and more reliable public transport that the scheme will deliver will also reduce pressure on our staff travelling to and from work. In addition, the reductions in congestion in many residential neighbourhoods to the north of the area will improve air quality, benefitting the health of local people and long-term, reducing pressure on the NHS. We see great benefit in delivery of this project to complete Shrewsbury’s outer ring road.”
Simon Whitehouse, Chief Executive Officer for NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, said:
“As an Integrated Care System we have four key aims: improving outcomes in population health and health care; tackling inequalities in outcomes, experience and access; enhancing productivity and value for money; and helping the NHS to support broader social and economic development.
“The North West Relief Road will help towards achieving these aims by reducing potential delays for our health and care staff across our hospitals and our community, improving access to NHS services for our patients and our workforce, and supporting healthier lives through active travel options and reduced congestion.
“The A5 around the south of Shrewsbury and roads into and out of the town centre in the north are often seriously congested which means that an accident or heavy traffic can block the roads creating significant problems for our ambulance service. Completing the ring road would help reduce existing congestion and provide an alternative route to the A5 for our emergency teams.”
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service and West Mercia Police have also backed the benefits to their operations, emphasising the project’s potential to improve public safety and reduce emergency response times.
Simon Hardiman, Chief Fire Officer for Shropshire, said:
“Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service needs to be able to respond to emergency incidents as quickly and safely as possible. Improvements to key road infrastructure are therefore important. Every minute of delay has a potential to impact on public safety. Road congestion and travel distances can delay us, particularly for our larger response vehicles that find it challenging to negotiate heavy traffic on relatively narrow roads. The completion of the Shrewsbury outer ring road would help us respond to emergencies more quickly.”
West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion added:
“At the heart of my police and crime plan is a focus on reducing the excessive harm too often caused on our roads with too many people being killed or seriously injured.
“This once in a generation investment in Shropshire’s roads will deliver a wide range of benefits for local communities by improving journey times, cutting pollution and boosting road safety through higher engineering standards.”
Arriva West Midlands provides the majority of Shropshire’s local bus services. Enabling an increase in the use of public transport is seen as critical to encouraging more sustainable travel around the area and helping people without access to a car to access employment and key services. In a letter to Shropshire Council, Arriva outlines the extent to which the NWRR could improve bus service reliability and frequency by reducing the severe traffic congestion currently seen in the town centre.
Ryan Dunne, Area Director at Arriva West Midlands, said:
“The benefits of the NWRR scheme for bus users would be substantial. Currently, all bus services seeking to travel from the northeast to northwest edge of the town (or vice versa), have to travel right into the heart of the town centre and back out again to circumnavigate the gap in the outer ring road. Other traffic has to do likewise, or “rat run” on unsuitable rural roads, adversely impacting local communities.
“The high levels of traffic funnelled into the town centre unnecessarily impacts on local communities, adding noise and pollution to neighbourhoods on the route as their residential streets become an arterial route. It also causes frustration for drivers but, more importantly for our customers, and sees buses caught in congestion – particularly at peak times – which renders bus journeys slower and more unreliable. This adds significant costs to the operation of bus services, which reduces frequency and makes it more difficult to maintain the service that communities need and that we want to provide.”
Arriva also noted the project’s alignment with broader sustainable transport goals, such as promoting active travel – the project will deliver more than 7.5km of new segregated cycle routes – improved air quality, and support for the innovative changes to traffic in the town centre proposed in the “Shrewsbury Moves” strategy.
Dan Morris, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways, , said:
“We have always believed that the completion of Shrewsbury’s outer ring road is a long-overdue project. It is crucial in so many ways to improving the lives of local people and addressing many of the challenges our area faces. No other alternative offers the same range of benefits.
“These statements from some of our most vital local service providers reinforce this point. From faster emergency response times and enhanced healthcare access, to cleaner air and more reliable transport, this project will transform the region, attract new investment, and improve the quality of life in and around our county town, both for those who live here now and in the future.”
The statements of support have been published on Shropshire Council’s dedicated information portal for the project.
