Written question asked by Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 25 March 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 13 April 2026. It was answered by Simon Lightwood (Labour) on Friday, 17 April 2026 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Tunnels: Bradford

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the value for money of the decision by National Highways to block up the Queensbury Tunnel in the Bradford Metropolitan District.

Answer: Sustrans (now called Walk, Wheel, Cycle Trust) produced a report for Bradford Council that assessed the Benefit Cost Ratios (BCR) of the active travel route options. The options included routes that would use the Queensbury Tunnel. The report made clear that the BCR scored for the routes were all very close indicating that none of them represented significantly better value for money over the others. Funding for an Active Travel route is the responsibility of the Local Authority. Therefore, without a clear commitment from either Bradford Council or West Yorkshire Combined Authority to provide funding for an active travel route utilising the tunnel, the difficult decision was taken to close the tunnel, subject to the appropriate planning approvals.

Secondary information