Major Leeds transport schemes including Dawsons Corner improvements and inland port are set to 'paused'

It could mean some long-planned projects are not completed until towards the end of the decade. Among those likely to be paused is a scheme to improve traffic at Dawsons Corner – one of the main routes between Bradford and Leeds – and plans for a Leeds inland port.

When West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Finance, Resources and Corporate Committee meets on November 10, members will be told that dozens of upcoming transport and infrastructure schemes have been reviewed in light of inflation costs.

Many of them will be paused or “pipelined” – set to one side until new funding becomes available. The mothballing is expected to save around £270m.

A report to members says a mix of high inflation costs and pressures created by the war in Ukraine and Covid are to blame. It says: “Costs have and continue to increase on all transport programmes, however the funding allocation remains the same, meaning there is a significant risk that the funding allocations won’t be able to fund all the current projects within the transport programmes.

“The Combined Authority and partners want to continue to deliver the programmes in their entirety, therefore the agreed way forward is to pause and pipeline certain projects for delivery over a longer time frame and continue to deliver prioritised projects at pace.”

According to the report, more than £1.9m has already been spent on the works at Dawsons Corner but pausing now will save £6m. Leeds City Council had submitted plans earlier this year for a phase of work that would see the four-way junction redesigned, with a view to widening the approach roads, installing new bus lanes and pedestrian crossings.

No funding had been approved yet for the Leeds inland port, which is expected to cost nearly £3.2m. The scheme, led by the the Canal and River Trust, is intended to create a new wharf facility at Stourton to allow freight to be carried from the Humber estuary into Leeds. The hope is that it will reduce congestion on roads and cut carbon emissions.

Other schemes listed for a pause include improvements on the A61 Scott Hall Road and A58 Roundhay Road, which were projected to cost £14m and 9.5m respectively.

Rail parking packages at a number of stations, including Guiseley, Apperley Bridge and Outwood, are also in line to be delayed.

A spokesperson for the Combined Authority said: “Record levels of inflation, combined with the knock-on effects of Brexit, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, are having a significant impact on the costs of infrastructure projects across the country.

“We have worked closely with our local authority partners to minimise this disruption and ensure no part of the region is unfairly impacted as we identify schemes that can be paused and delivered over a longer time period.

“We await the upcoming Autumn Statement and hope that ministers will spare local government from another round of austerity so that projects like these that will help deliver growth and higher living standards across all parts of the country can go ahead.”