Protest held against 'short-sighted' tunnel plan

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."

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.

McWilliam said saving the tunnel came down to "people power".

"We need people to make a big noise and say this is a bad use of public money, it's a bad decision and it really shouldn't happen," she said.

Some people had travelled from Bristol and London to attend the protest, she added.

"This is not just a local issue; this is an issue that should have national attention."

She said the cycleway was "absolutely essential" to connecting Halifax, Bradford and Keighley.

Judith Cummins, MP for Bradford South, said the tunnel was a "jewel in the crown of Bradford, Queensbury and Yorkshire".

"There's hardly any of these kinds of tunnels left in the whole of Europe. It's a real heritage going forward for future generations to have this asset," she said.

Shah said she and Cummins "will lobby, and we will lobby hard" in Westminster.

"We've got the surveys, we've got the evidence, all I need now is the government to make that commitment that it will not close Queensbury Tunnel," she added.

A spokesperson for National Highways said: "Following the government's decision on Queensbury Tunnel, we will begin the process to stabilise the tunnel safely and securely."

The company previously specified it would "not be infilling or demolishing the tunnel", but agreed the work would make it inaccessible and prevent it from being converted into a greenway.

Bradford Council said a new consultation would take place between councillors once the government-owned company formally submitted its amended proposals.

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