Fears M62 upgrade plans near Huddersfield are about to be scrapped have been raised.

Questions are being asked over a series of roads projects after an apparent £800m black hole in the government’s road-building programme was revealed.

Rochdale Borough Council leader Clr Richard Farnell says he thinks £283m of M62 improvements from his area past Huddersfield to junction 25 at Brighouse are under threat.

The work was due to be part of a wider project to connect Manchester all the way to Leeds via a ‘smart motorway.’

Clr Farnell has written to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling seeking assurances that the trans-Pennine scheme is still on the cards.

Neither the Department for Transport nor Highways England has yet confirmed which schemes will be dropped.

But the Office of Rail and Road has said a review of 112 projects was underway with doubt over 60 schemes due to start by 2020.

Kirklees Council leader Clr David Sheard said the council had not been notified of any specific plans to shelve M62 improvements around Huddersfield.

But he added: “It wouldn’t surprise me, given the general funding for transport in the north compared to the south.”

Clr Sheard said any changes would probably be announced in the Chancellor’s budget a week on Wednesday.

Clr Peter McBride, who leads transport projects for Kirklees, said he was aware the government was trying to decide which trans-Pennine routes to invest in.

Proposals have been floated to create a £6bn road using old rail tunnels between Sheffield and Manchester.

Road plans are also competing with rail proposals, including the potential HS3 scheme and the electrification of the trans-Pennine route.

Clr McBride said he doubted ambitions to build a new M62 slip-road at Bradley – J24a – were threatened as they were longer term.

“It’s something we’ve proposed to Highways England,” he said.

“But it’s not for the next five years – we are hoping to get it into the following five year phase so it would be ten years until it would be built.”

Work on the continuing upgrade of the M60/M62 has already begun on the Manchester side.

A £202m 17-mile stretch is due to be completed in autumn 2017.

Clr Farnell, who leads on housing and planning for Greater Manchester’s ‘super council’, said: “A half-finished managed motorway, failing to fully connect Leeds and Manchester, would not be very smart. The sooner the mixed messages stop and this important work gets the green light the better.”