Work on the crumbling road at the back of the John Smith’s Stadium in Huddersfield could still be many months away despite being given the go ahead in March 2023.

And when it finally does get underway, the scheme will take six months to complete.

Bradley Mills Road, which runs up the back of the stadium past the former Dalton Grange wedding venue to Dalton, has been riddled with potholes for several years.

The cliff-edge road will need major reconstruction and it’s not just about resurfacing. Planning permission will also be required.

Kirklees Council gave funding approval in March 2023 but the project is complex – and costly – and work is still a long way from being started.

 

 

The council has included the scheme in its Highways Capital Plan for 2024-25 but it remains to be seen whether work will be started in this financial year.

It is not clear exactly how much the work will cost but the council previously set aside £5 million for Bradley Mills Road and another major scheme on the A6024 Woodhead Road at Holme Moss which was damaged after a landslip in 2021.

The council’s then Cabinet member for highways, Clr Naheed Mather, told Huddersfield Hub 18 months ago that she hoped work would start in January 2024.

Clr Mather is no longer on the council but represented the Dalton ward and told Huddersfield Hub last year: “Since I became a councillor in 2012 this has been on the agenda and we have finally managed to secure the money.

“There’s a sharp cliff-edge where weathering has occurred and whatever we have tried has not been enough.”

Asked for an update this week, a council spokesman said: “The project at Bradley Mills Road is currently waiting planning approval along with the required impact assessments and mitigations.

“We’re unable to confirm a start date until that approval has been given, however, we do expect the project to take around 26 weeks to complete once work has started on site.

“We have capital funding in the pipeline which will be accessed following a thorough tendering process.”

First images of the new Huddersfield Police Station as public consultation is launched