Full business case

The following full business case (FBC) is the draft assessment of the case for building the North West Relief Road (NWRR), which would finally complete the missing northern section of Shrewsbury’s ring road. 

These final assessments are required of all schemes considered for approval by the UK government. FBCs provide updated modelling and analysis that underpins the assessment of value for money of a scheme and its benefits.

The updated draft FBC for the NWRR confirms the revised estimated cost for delivering the road – an estimated maximum of £215 million (including the cost of the Oxon Link Road) over the total ten-year lifetime of the project - and the benefits it would deliver, including reductions in journey times – based on analysis using a nationally stipulated standard.

It confirms the powerful case for building the NWRR, despite the rise in costs of delivery due to inflation. The benefits are driven by the fundamental role of the project in driving a number of strategic aims for Shrewsbury and surrounding areas, these being:

• 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
  
• Attracting new investment and growing Shropshire’s economy

Value for money and impact   

The revised draft FBC confirms that the NWRR would deliver an adjusted benefit to cost ratio score or the adjusted BCR - the mechanism used by the UK Treasury to assess schemes - of 3.88 over 4.0 for any of the metrics that exist. This means that for every pound spent on the scheme, it delivers over £3.884 of value back in value to the local economy when considering the economic benefits, and some wider benefits including increased journey time, reliability and reduced air pollution. This figure doesn't take account of all of the wider benefits that the local NHS, police, fire service and Arriva Bus say the scheme would deliver.  

The BCR score of 3.88 over 4.0 ranks the NWRR as scoring best of any transport scheme in the country when considering the benefit versus the cost of delivery, among those transport schemes deemed to be high value.

Journey time savings and reduced congestion 

A large number of vehicular journey times along various routes are modelled in the draft FBC using the prescribed national methods. After the NWRR is built, journeys along a very few roads would slightly lengthen, although this is on roads that currently don't see heavy traffic, and the increase is marginal. However, the overwhelming outcome would be a significant reduction in journey times across the north of Shrewsbury as a result of having a complete ring road.

When considering the overall impact on journey times across all roads across the entire day, the average single journey time across roads in the northern Shrewsbury area would be reduced by 17 minutes. This means that a typical return journey along the same route in each direction would be an average of 34 minutes less than it is currently. This is a massive saving per day, with the potential to substantially improve the quality of life for many people in Shropshire, benefiting those travelling by car, while increasing productivity. 

Crucially, this level of journey saving has major implications for improving bus services, making bus journeys more reliable across the entire length of a route – benefitting everyone living on that route. The benefits to public transport of the NWRR have been publicly welcomed by Arriva Bus, the primary bus operating company for Shropshire. 

Major public service organisations have publicly backed the NWRR due to the benefits they see that the project would deliver for their organisation. The police, NHS and fire service have all referenced the reductions in congestion and journey times as delivering a significant positive impact for staff getting to work and for people accessing their services, while people living in communities blighted by heavy standing traffic that is currently forced to run right through the heart of the neighbourhoods would see traffic levels greatly reduced.

Boosting the Shrewsbury Moves Strategy

The Shrewsbury Moves strategy is designed to increase cycling and walking and improve public transport. 

By reducing traffic congestion in and around the town centre, a safer and more attractive environment for cycling and walking would be created, with greater opportunity for new cycle routes. In addition, the NWRR would see a new 7km segregated cycle route constructed alongside the road to bridge the gap between existing sections of the town’s cycle route network. 

Bus services would see a dramatic reduction in congestion along a number of routes they use to access neighbourhoods in the north of town. This area has among the lowest levels of car ownership in the town, with more than a third of households not owning a car or van and  being dependent on public transport. The increased reliability of journey times and timetabling for bus services will improve the lives of many families, and make the bus a more attractive option for many other people, while improving options for park and ride facilities.

Increasing biodiversity

The biodiversity (the number of species of plants and animals present and thriving in an area) of many parts of north Shrewsbury is currently poor. Through the funding available to deliver the NWRR, the council will increase biodiversity in the area by at least 10%. It will plant circa four hectares of new native woodland, and invest in breathing new life into Hencote Pool, an overlooked site of special scientific interest (SSSI) located in the area.

Commenting on the FBC, Lezley Picton, leader of Shropshire Council said:

“The draft FBC makes the very strong case to the UK government for support and investment in the NWRR. We have already invested £38 million of government money to get to this stage. To fail to take the road forward now would see this investment wasted for no benefit. All other alternative options have been assessed. Numerous smaller schemes would cost more money, and condemn local people to many more years of high congestion and frustration as they are built over time, all for less benefit than the NWRR provides. We need to grasp this opportunity and deliver the NWRR now. 

“The prime minister recently commented that ‘…for too long the NIMBYs and naysayers have been able to clog up our system so things can’t get built.’ Stopping this scheme would be to stop progress; to stop the schemes that we need to grow our economy, create prosperity and properly fund our schools, hospitals and social care. We agree with the prime minister. We’ve seen how hard it is to get on and deliver a vital scheme in the face of organised opposition first hand, even after a proper process, but we remain determined to succeed. We are ready to go, to get on and deliver. 

“The council’s concern is to do what is best for local people. To grow our economy, create opportunity, and improve the lives of local people. When most people I meet talk to me about the NWRR, they tell me we should get on and deliver it. That’s exactly what I intend to do. I look forward to council using this FBC to make the positive case we have to government to secure the scheme’s future and to get spades in the ground as soon as possible.” 

The full business case, to be updated from the November 2024 draft as now published, will need approval from full council before the scheme can be submitted to government. This update will include the most recent information around carbon impacts and mitigation, as approved by Northern Planning Committee in January 2025, and other minor adjustments to ensure that traffic modelling is as current as possible at the time of submission. Due to May’s local elections, this is now not expected to come forward until later this year.

For more detail, please take a look at the press release that accompanied this information.