‘Crackpot’ Manchester Road bus lane costing £1m gets go-ahead

Feb 2 2010 By Barry Gibson

COUNCILLORS have backed a "crackpot idea" for a £1m bus lane.

Kirklees Council’s Cabinet yesterday supported the £950,000 upgrade of Manchester Road.

Work will begin in June on the 600-metre lane running outbound from the ring road to the Longroyd Bridge junction.

Opposition Conservative councillor Donald Firth spoke against the plan at yesterday afternoon’s Cabinet meeting in Huddersfield Town Hall.

The Holme Valley South councillor said: "Spending £950,000 on a bus lane for less than a mile is a crackpot idea.

"We’ve got half our roads falling apart, we’ve got potholes to sort out. Let’s get the jobs done that need doing – the potholes and road maintenance."

But council leader Clr Mehboob Khan replied that the bus lane money was not available for road maintenance.

The Greenhead Labour man said: "The money for this scheme is coming from central government. We can accept the money or we can reject it – and see the money go back to Government, probably to be spent in Leeds or Bradford."