Campaigners have accused Shropshire Council of creating a ‘climate catastrophe’ after a series of new documents from contractor WSP show that the road will create more than twice as many carbon emissions as previously predicted.
The new information was uploaded to Shropshire Council’s planning portal to satisfy planning conditions related to the scheme’s Carbon Assessment Plan.
The amended Greenhouse Gas Assessment Update in regards to the Shrewsbury North West relief road now shows that the amount of carbon that needs to be offset has risen from 26,712 tonnes CO2e to at least 55,904 tonnes CO2e.
WSP has admitted that these new figures represent aa significant change in result since the previous assessment’.
The documents also suggest that traffic in and around Shrewsbury is likely to increase with the road rather than decrease, contrary to previous claims by the council.
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The changes are so significant that it is understood that the council will need to take them back to the Northern Planning Committee before Christmas in order to make amendments to the planning condition requiring a Carbon Assessment of the road.
Better Shrewsbury Transport’s (BeST) Dave Green from said: “We’ve always said that the North West Relief Road was a climate catastrophe because it would take around 130 years to be “net zero”.
“The council is building a road that won’t be “net zero” until after our great, great grandchildren are dead and buried.
“Previously the council has said that the road will offer an operational saving of 359t/CO2e per year which would mean the road won’t be ‘net zero’ for 389 years.
“Now it acknowledges that rather than reducing emissions from traffic in Shrewsbury, the road will actually increase them.
“By our calculations using the council’s own figures, the NWRR is likely to create 140,000 tonnes CO2e.
“This figure is over five times what the Northern Planning Committee was advised before it voted to approve the scheme in October 2023. It appears they voted without all the facts to hand.”
