Council accidentally backs £95m extra cost for relief road after ‘typo’ in report

Finance director says he was ‘confused’ when figure was mentioned in council debate

Shropshire Council accidentally backed an extra £95m of funding for the North West Relief Road (Shropshire Council )

Councillors accidentally voted to support an extra £95m for a relief road after a mistake was filed in a report.

Shropshire Council voted through the report on the North West Relief Road on Thursday, but the cost of the bypass had been accidentally marked down as more than doubling from the £87m true estimate to £182m.

In an email seen by the BBC, director of finance James Walton admitted to Green group leader Julian Dean that he was “confused” after the £182m cost was mentioned at the council meeting, adding: “This row should have been deleted, it was missed, and I apologise.

“Early drafts of the spreadsheets apparently included holding figures for a number of items that were considered for inclusion in the report.”

The vote did not commit the council to taking out the loan, however, with Mr Walton saying in a statement to The Independent that the report was just to outline “considerations in relation to [the road]” rather than a bid for more funding.

He said the typo was a result of an “officer mistake” and would be amended.

Despite the council not being tied to the extra £95m figure, the council has faced backlash over the mistake not being picked up before the vote.

Liberal Democrat councillor and transport campaigner Rob Wilson told the BBC: “Today at council the Conservatives proposed taking out a £95m loan to make up an unspecified funding gap. I asked why they would need £95m for an £87m road and was not given an answer.”

“We are being asked to find an extra £95m with no information,” Labour group leader Julia Buckley told the broadcaster.

Though not referenced in the report itself, the road was included in a list of projects appended to a report for a mid-year review of a capital investment programme.

The initial funding for the scheme in 2019 included £54m of Department for Transport funding, £4.2m from the Local Enterprise Partnership and the remainder from Shropshire Council’s capital budget.

Shropshire Council has already spent £24m on preparatory work ahead of planning permission being granted, with a decision expected in the coming months.

A statement from Mr Waltson said: “As a result of an officer mistake, [the report] contained an error estimating increased costs and proposing additional funding for the NWRR. This figure should have been removed as it was a remnant of working documents whereby finance officers had incorporated an extremely rough estimate based on high levels of inflation, assumptions about contingencies and delays.

“This was in effect a ‘holding’ figure, often used by finance officers when modelling potential costs or budget projections and was not derived from consultation or information from the project team, or operational officers involved in the proposed NWRR.

“To correct this, we are required to amend the single figure and recirculate Appendices B and C to all members of the council to clarify the situation. We also commit to bringing full clarification to full council in December as necessary.”