We need your help as we’re at a critical stage in our efforts to save Queensbury Tunnel, a 1.4 mile long Victorian railway tunnel. We’re calling for it to be repurposed as a new greenway for walking, wheeling and cycling, connecting communities between Bradford, Keighley and Halifax in West Yorkshire.

National Highways, which is supposed to maintain the tunnel and has managed to hoodwink the previous Roads Minister, Lilian Greenwood MP, into agreeing to block it up, has to get planning permission from Bradford Council before it can proceed.

Our recent gathering at the tunnel’s northern portal, when over 200 people turned up on a cold, damp and misty January afternoon, shows there is strong and widespread support - both in the local community and beyond - to save the tunnel.

Local MPs and councillors were present on the day and vocal in their support. However, the local authorities don’t have the money to take on the tunnel. That’s why we’re asking you to write to your MP asking them to lobby Simon Lightwood MP, the minister in charge of National Highways. We want him to make the state-owned roads company give £7.5m - the amount it would spend blocking up the tunnel - to Bradford Council or West Yorkshire Combined Authority for them to manage it as an irreplaceable transport asset for the region. The money could then be used to restore the structure and make it greenway-ready. Creating a route through the tunnel would then be an affordable proposition.

We also feel that National Highways should contribute towards these wider costs because of its failure to properly maintain the tunnel in the first place and the amount of funding it has wasted trying to abandon it.

So please help make the government see sense, and stop Labour being the ‘blockers’ to our greenway vision. Just put your name, address and email in the ‘Take Action’ panel, then click the ‘Start Writing’ button to send a letter to your MP asking them to lobby the minister. You can edit the suggested text to say whatever you feel is appropriate. When you’re ready, hit ‘Send Letter’. The whole process can take less a minute.

Many thanks,

Norah,

Leader, Queensbury Tunnel Society