Bradford’s £64m Relief Road Project Canceled

Plans for a £64m relief road in Bradford have been abandoned despite more than £1m already having been spent on the scheme. Bradford Council indicated that the forthcoming tram system connecting the city and Leeds was a factor in the determination that the South East Bradford Access Road was no longer necessary. The initiative was designed to establish a new route between Holme Wood and Westgate Hill Street in Tong, which would have eased traffic on Tong Street and within the Holme Wood Estate. A council spokesperson affirmed that it would be “possible to deliver sufficient homes and jobs for Bradford district without the need for an access road”. The project’s cancellation occurred at a meeting of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority on Thursday. Following the meeting, Green Party councillor Matt Edwards remarked that the scheme had always been on “a road to nowhere”. He further stated, “The funds would always have been better spent being toward improving Tong Street – a scheme Bradford has been waiting decades for.” Transport officials had previously asserted that the road would “improve travel times, attract more business and unlock land for 2,500 new homes”. However, it was among several infrastructure projects that were paused in 2022 due to escalating costs. According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the combined authority had already expended over £1m on developing the plans over the past several years. A Bradford Council spokesperson explained that the tram line, planned as part of the new mass transit network between Bradford and Leeds, meant the road project was no longer considered a high priority. They elaborated that since the initial planning of the relief road, “a number of key factors have changed, including the changing locations of new housing and economic development in this part of West Yorkshire.” The spokesperson concluded that the new tram system would offer a “more sustainable transport solution to existing and new communities than an access road.”