| Protest held against 'short-sighted' Queensbury tunnel plan Posted by ChrisB at 21:03, 18th January 2026 |     |
From BBC
About 150 people have gathered at a Victorian railway tunnel near Bradford in the hope of reversing a government decision to fill it in.
Queensbury Tunnel Society (QTS) has spent more than a decade developing plans for the 1.4-mile (2.3km) disused tunnel to become a greenway, or shared-use path, linking Bradford and Calderdale.
In July 2025, the government ruled the tunnel was to be filled in, at a cost of £7.5m, stating redeveloping the 1870s structure would be too expensive.
But Naz Shah, MP for Bradford West, said: "It will cost us less than £7m to restore it, to make it for the benefit of the local people. I think it's a short-sighted decision to try and close this."
National Highways said proposals to restore and reopen the route would cost £22m, but engineering consultancy AECOM said the work would cost £6.9m.
The walking and cycling proposal would also return £3 in social, economic and tourism benefits for every £1 invested in it, QTS said.
MP Lilian Greenwood, government minister for local transport, wrote to QTS on 6 January and said: "I am not in a position to commit additional public money to what is, at present, an unfunded aspiration."
[Image from here is not available to guests]
QTS leader Norah McWilliam said she was expecting the plans to propose "abandonment on the cheap".
She added: "If [the government's] priority is to 'improve people's lives in tangible ways', how on earth can it waste so much public money on a scheme that will deliver no social or economic benefit?"
National Highways spent £7.2m between 2018 and 2021 on strengthening the structure to prevent it from collapsing and to ensure "any future plans for the structure can be realised".
The body is due to submit revised plans to Bradford Council soon, QTS said.
The original application for filling in the tunnel, submitted in 2019, received more than 8,000 objections.
/....cont
Queensbury Tunnel Society (QTS) has spent more than a decade developing plans for the 1.4-mile (2.3km) disused tunnel to become a greenway, or shared-use path, linking Bradford and Calderdale.
In July 2025, the government ruled the tunnel was to be filled in, at a cost of £7.5m, stating redeveloping the 1870s structure would be too expensive.
But Naz Shah, MP for Bradford West, said: "It will cost us less than £7m to restore it, to make it for the benefit of the local people. I think it's a short-sighted decision to try and close this."
National Highways said proposals to restore and reopen the route would cost £22m, but engineering consultancy AECOM said the work would cost £6.9m.
The walking and cycling proposal would also return £3 in social, economic and tourism benefits for every £1 invested in it, QTS said.
MP Lilian Greenwood, government minister for local transport, wrote to QTS on 6 January and said: "I am not in a position to commit additional public money to what is, at present, an unfunded aspiration."
[Image from here is not available to guests]
QTS leader Norah McWilliam said she was expecting the plans to propose "abandonment on the cheap".
She added: "If [the government's] priority is to 'improve people's lives in tangible ways', how on earth can it waste so much public money on a scheme that will deliver no social or economic benefit?"
National Highways spent £7.2m between 2018 and 2021 on strengthening the structure to prevent it from collapsing and to ensure "any future plans for the structure can be realised".
The body is due to submit revised plans to Bradford Council soon, QTS said.
The original application for filling in the tunnel, submitted in 2019, received more than 8,000 objections.
/....cont
