Councillors hear update on Bradford's Queensbury Tunnel - six years after plans lodged to fill it in
National Highways wants to fill in the disused Victorian tunnel - although there are calls for it to form part of a cycle path
Last updated 9th Dec 2025
A SIX-year-old planning application is the only thing in Bradford Council’s “toolbox” that it can use to stop the filling of Queensbury Tunnel – Councillors have been told.
Transport bosses were recently asked about what was being done by the Authority to save the tunnel – which has been proposed as a new cycling route that would link Bradford to Halifax.
Councillors were told that a decision to fill the tunnel was made by a National body, and the only real way the Council could block it was by refusing a planning application that was first submitted in the Summer of 2019.
The 1.4-mile-long rail tunnel was closed in the 1950s, but in recent years there has been a campaign to repair and re-open the structure to create a new cycling route.
Despite the popular campaign, National Highways has decided to close the tunnel for safety reasons – a decision backed by the Department for Transport.
That work to fill in the tunnel is expected to cost over £7m.
In June 2019 Highways England Historical Railways Estate submitted a planning application to fill in parts of the tunnel to Bradford Council.
A decision has yet to be made.
At a meeting of the Council’s Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee last month, members were given an update on “strategic transport” schemes in the District. This included a list of studies into possible new cycling routes.
Councillor Alex Mitchell (Lab, Queensbury) asked: “Can we put Queensbury Tunnel on this list?”
Transport officer John Davis said: “We’ll prioritise the schemes we feel are the most deliverable. At the moment we don’t have the level of funding available for this (the re-opening of Queensbury Tunnel).”
Councillor Anna Watson (Green, Shipley) added: “What are we doing as a Council to urge National Highways not to waste their money by filling it in? This seems like something we’d like to see developed in the future.”
She was told that the decision had been made nationally to fill in the tunnel, and the planning application for this work was still awaiting a decision.
Since the application was submitted in June 2019, it has attracted 8,153 objections.
Richard Gelder, Highways Service Manager, said: “The planning application is still sat with the Council to determine.
“We’re dealing with a Government body – the Department for Transport. We have lobbied to get funding to secure the tunnel. We know the Queensbury Tunnel Society is lobbying with the minister.
“There is still work going on, but the only thing we as a Council have left in our toolbox is the planning application.”
The last update on the planning application dates back almost four years, when the Council’s Local Plan team comment on the proposal to fill the structure in.
In February 2022 a comment from the team on the application said: “The loss of the Queensbury Tunnel would reduce options to deliver a strategic approach to improving cycling and walking infrastructure for the wider west / South West Bradford District area and connections beyond and the use of the tunnel for cycling / walking would put the former rail tunnel to good alternative sustainable transport uses.
“It is noted that if the tunnel is redeveloped for a use such as cycling that it has potential to be England’s longest cycle tunnel. This could potentially raise the profile of the tunnel, which may have potential to be a tourism attraction in its own right.”
Cllr Mitchell will ask Council bosses a further question on the Tunnel’s future at a meeting on Tuesday.
In a question to the Council Executive, he will ask: “Could the portfolio holder please provide a position statement on the current status of National Highways’ planning application relating to Queensbury Tunnel?
“In particular, I would appreciate clarification on: whether any further documentation is expected from National Highways, what discussions have taken place between the Council and the applicant regarding the progression of the application, and the anticipated next steps and indicative timescales for determining the application.
“Given the importance of retaining Queensbury Tunnel as a long-term asset aligned with Bradford’s future cycling and active travel ambitions, it would be helpful to understand how these considerations are being reflected within the planning process.
“Will the Portfolio holder also confirm whether it is still an ambition of the Council to see the Tunnel come into use as a cycleway?”