Shropshire Council says it expects a full business case for its Shrewsbury North West Relief Road project to be ready before Christmas.

Plans for the project were due to be presented to a meeting of full council later this month, but were missing from agenda papers published yesterday (September 18).

The authority says it is still working on discharging planning conditions attached to the scheme, but says the full business case (FBC) containing the estimated final cost of the project will be ready before Christmas.

“Originally the plan was to bring the FBC to September’s Full Council meeting, however the council’s preference is to complete the planning permission first, by meeting the recommendations of Northern Planning Committee made in February 2024,” said a spokesperson.

“The council is continuing to work with stakeholders and its partners to ensure that the required section 106s are agreed. Once this work is complete, the planning notice will be issued.

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“This extra time has enabled the council to go back out to contract bidders to explore ways to achieve better value for money on the scheme’s costs.”

In February, Shropshire Council’s planning committee agreed a suite of 62 conditions attached to the scheme which would need to be satisfied prior to the granting of full planning permission for the project.

Final estimates for the project will not be made public until the publishing of the full business case, however costs have risen since the most recent estimate of £80m published on the authority’s website.

The authority has previously stated that the cost of the road will be fully funded by the UK Government, although Transport Minister Guy Opperman said in February that funding would not be awarded until the full business case for the scheme had been submitted.

Highways portfolio holder Councillor Dan Morris said Shropshire Council was “nearly there” with the full business case, which remained on course to be submitted to the government later this year.

“It’s a very complex scheme so and there are still a few remaining issues to complete before the FBC is ready to come to council,” he said.

“We’re very nearly there though and expect this to be before Christmas, and subject to approval will be shared with the Department for Transport.”