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I’m just at the Calderdale Cycle Forum and we’re discussing the planning application to fill in Queensbury Tunnel which would put it beyond use (although not necessarily actually make it safe). There’s momentum building to put the tunnel back into use as part of a greenway between Halifax and Bradford which would make a brilliant cycle way and make the area much less intimidating to ride in.
Please can you object to the planning application here
There are loads of articles and press about the campaign to open it. Currently there’s a bit of ‘right hand and left hand operating independently’ as Highways England wants both to promote active travel and er.. close the tunnel which would make brilliant active travel infrastructure. Hopefully a bit of opposition (over 2000 objections and rising) can push it onto the right track....
News articles:
I just put some comments on the petition
It’s difficult to read the document as it’s so long!
Am I right in thinking it 5m to close it? How much is the refurb and cycle way plan?
It seems daft to lose a historic bit of engineering and pay millions of pounds to do it when we could generate local revenue and promote other uses like cycling
Yes, £5 million to close it. Although it will surely cost more to restore, it’s not going to be as much as a mile of motorway...
Objections are coming in though - another 200 since I added mine. Fingers crossed.
Think you'll be wasting your time. There isn't a council anywhere that has ever taken any notice of a public consultation exercise. They have made up their minds and will do what they want. You just don't have a voice. Then, 20 years hence, they will spend a fortune to reopen it. Just look at the vast expenditure on the Keswick tunnel.
Sad, but you are dealing with unelected, anonymous council staff with their own "confidential" agendas.
To be fair, Bradford Council has been positive about supporting the cycle way / reopening plans but doesn’t have funding currently.
The application to fill it with concrete is from Highways England so the first step is for Bradford Council to say ‘no, you can’t do that go back and find a better plan’. Then finding funding for the better plan becomes the priority. Currently Highways England is saying £3.6 million to close it (sorry not the £5 million above), but the cost to run a cycle path all the way from Halifax to Bradford (including through the tunnel) would be £11.6 million. So the gap is not insurmountable.
The "plan" to develop it as a cycle route was featured on Look North a couple of years ago, presumably that was BDC's idea? (the cycle route, not Look North)
Is this something SUSTRANs are/should/could be involved with? They seem to access government and other funding for sustainable travel projects, would have thought they'd be (or should be) all over this ...