Council to approve £12.9m funding for A629 footbridge

Tuesday, 27 May 2025 17:37

By Chris Young, Local Democracy Reporter

Councillors are set to approve the allocation of funds for a pedestrian bridge linking Steeton and Silsden next week.

At a meeting on Tuesday, June 3, Bradford Council’s Executive will rubber stamp schemes for the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement awarded to West Yorkshire, totally around £143 million. The money is part of a £5.7bn Government pot of cash distributed to different authorities across the UK, and locally is being distributed by West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

Among the projects to benefit from the scheme is the long-planned footbridge linking Steeton and Silsden over the busy A629.

The bridge has been in the planning stages for well over a decade, and will get £12.9m funding from the programme. However, this will only be for Phase 1 – the actual bridge.

The eventual plan is for new pedestrian and cycle paths linking the two villages. However, the report going to Executive says: “The potential for a second phase to this project has been identified, however no funding has so far been allocated for this purpose.”

As well as projects for the Kings Road, Wakefield Road, Westgate and Leeds Road areas of Bradford, £5.8m will be spent on safer road schemes across the district and £57m will be spent on general highways repairs. Improvements to public rights of way and “sustainable transport” projects will also get funding.

Explaining the benefits of the works, the report to the Executive says:

“Safer, well-designed transport networks can help reduce crime and anti-social behaviour by increasing the presence of people in public areas and improving street lighting or surveillance.

“By providing and promoting sustainable travel options, the programme also offers alternatives to private car use, potentially improving community safety by mitigating issues around driver behaviour, such as speeding or congestion.

“However, the construction phase of each project may bring temporary disruptions. The Council will seek to mitigate risks to community safety including temporary traffic or pedestrian management around worksites.”

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