Kirklees Council to discuss new strategy around funding for major transport schemes

On Tuesday 23 January, Kirklees Council’s Cabinet are set to discuss the council’s strategy for funding around major transport schemes.

The council’s programme of major transport work covers walking and cycling, relieving traffic congestion, improvements for public transport, and supporting the council’s green agenda by reducing carbon output.

The discussion will aim to address funding shortfalls, which will mean changes to the council’s planned programme of works across Kirklees. The funding shortfalls are primarily due to cost increases over recent years, which in turn are due to spikes in inflation following Covid and other national economic pressures.

This has “unavoidably impacted” the council’s long-term plans for large-scale transport schemes which take many years to plan and deliver. The work is supported by a range of complex funding sources, many of which are managed by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, including the West Yorkshire Transport Fund.

The new strategy would make the council’s key projects once again affordable, by changing the way the Kirklees elements of the West Yorkshire Transport Fund are allocated.

The council’s strategy to address funding gaps centres primarily around setting a new timeline for delivering improvements around the scheme of improvements from the A62 to Cooper Bridge, which would allow some funding from this scheme to be redistributed to other projects.

This would then mean a phased approach to the scheme, which would see improvements at the Cooper Bridge roundabout delivered during the first phase, and the remaining scheme delivered over a longer period of time, subject to further detailed evaluation of the project.

This redistribution of funding would then support the delivery of many different major transport improvements across Kirklees.

Councillor Graham Turner, Cabinet Member for Finance & Regeneration, commented: “Over recent years, it’s no secret that a lot of our major projects have come under financial strain. We’ve seen a huge inflation on costs of materials, and we’re still seeing struggles in the construction sector following Covid.

“By their very nature, these kinds of projects take years to design and deliver – not least because we try to time our various transport projects to create the least possible disruption for Kirklees residents. So over the last few years, these rising costs have had a huge impact on our plans across the board.

“Despite all the challenges we face, we remain ambitious for Kirklees, and we’ll continue to invest in our travel infrastructure, and work with all the relevant partners who can help us deliver great improvements at good value.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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