Fight to save trees in £13m road plan

Road to facilitate the project. At a meeting of the council’s decisionmaking cabinet, Clr Andrew Cooper urged a rethink. He described the area under threat as ‘an iconic and beautiful entry point to Huddersfield’ and that in cutting down 126 trees ‘we would lose far more than we would gain.’

Addressing Clr Peter McBride, he added: “Does the cabinet member agree that to re-evaluate the scheme is essential now that traffic and commuting patterns have changed so radically? And does he recognise that it is not possible to compensate for the loss of so many mature trees in any meaningful way through the planting of a few hundred tree whips?”

Clr McBride said not moving ahead with the scheme would cause gridlock. He added that creating a proper link between Huddersfield, Halifax and West Bradford

on a major arterial route meant doing something ‘quite fundamental.’

He revealed the full cost of the entire project would be in the region of £129m, and that it had a bearing on the connectivity between Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital. And he said 700 trees would be planted to replace those lost.

He said: “It’s crucial that that is kept open and functional for the period that they’re going to be operational. At the moment congestion is increasing and there will be problems in the movements between those two hospitals.”

He said it was ‘absolutely necessary’ to develop the project ‘to decongest the linkage points’ between the two towns, and that to not follow through and complete it after more than half the money had already been spent was ‘absurd.’