A MULTI-MILLION pound scheme to ease congestion at an "intolerable" junction has been delayed by two years, it has been revealed.

And local councillors are warning that, with hundreds of homes now being built in the area, there could soon be gridlock on the roads.

The £6.8 million scheme at Greengates aims to remodel the busy crossroads where Harrogate Road, one of the main routes into Bradford, meets New Line.

The project had originally been due to be finished by December 2017 to tie in with a number of major housing developments nearby, including 267 homes being built at Simpson Green, Apperley Bridge, 220 homes being built at Cote Farm, Thackley and 130 homes planned for Harrogate Road, Greengates.

But a difficulty in buying up all the required land around the junction means highways bosses now don't think work will even start until late 2017, two years behind schedule.

The Telegraph & Argus understands it is looking likely that Bradford Council will have to force landowners to sell some of the land through lengthy compulsory purchase arrangements.

Ward councillor Jeanette Sunderland (Lib Dem, Idle and Thackley) said she feared the improvements would now come too late to cope with the influx of traffic the new developments would bring.

She said: "It is a worry, because all the developers are getting on site.

"The green fields at Simpson Green are being ripped up and they've got permission to get on site at Thackley.

"I note there's an application in for 700 homes at Bolton Woods, so actually they have got to get a shift on, because it is intolerable now."

A spokesman for Bradford Council said the original target to finish the scheme by December 2017 had been provisional.

She said: "The date of December 2017 was always subject to the process of early access to land associated with the junction improvement work."

And Councillor Val Slater, Bradford Council's Executive member for housing, planning and transport, said: "This is a major highway improvement scheme and is an extremely complex process.

"We are making every effort to get the work done as quickly as possible."

But Councillor Dominic Fear (Lib Dem, Idle and Thackley) said the delay was an example of a "chronic problem" within the Council's asset management department.

He said the department was far too heavily focused on selling off the authority's assets and had neglected complex land acquisition projects like this one.

Cllr Fear said he had raised the issue in his capacity as a committee member of the Regeneration and Economy overview and scrutiny committee.

The junction work is being funded mainly by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority's Transport fund, with around £2m coming from Miller Homes, the developer behind the Simpson Green housing scheme.