ANGRY business owners could bring a multi-million pound lawsuit against Bradford Council after chiefs approved the controversial route of a new cycle path.

Today, Bradford Council’s Executive rubber-stamped plans to build a £2.5m segregated path, dubbed CityConnect 2, along Bradford’s Canal Road corridor towards Shipley.

They overrode objections to approve the route along Valley Road, Bolton Lane and Hillam Road, which will see one-way traffic systems and parking restrictions put in place at various points.

But firms in an industrial area along the route are now considering legal action, claiming the traffic restrictions will hit them hard.

Paul Jaggar, managing director of builder’s merchant Uriah Woodhead and Sons, said the decision would “have a devastating effect on businesses”.

He said one trader had already upped sticks to Leeds and warned more could follow.

And he claimed the cycle path itself would prove a “white elephant in next to no time”.

Mr Jaggar said affected businesses were considering taking the matter to court in one of two ways - by seeking a judicial review of the decision or by teaming up to lodge a class action against the authority for compensation, which he said could amount to “tens of millions” of pounds.

Cycling groups have welcomed the decision to press ahead with the scheme, which would extend the existing Leeds-to-Bradford CityConnect cycle superhighway.

John Dennis, who chairs an independent advisory board for CityConnect, said the path should prove good for local businesses.

He said: “We are not anti-business in any way, shape or form. CityConnect is basically designed to encourage people to cycle or walk to work.”

And Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, who leads on transport matters, said they had made alterations as far as possible to help local traders.

Today's meeting in City Hall heard that the Bradford East area committee had asked for other possible routes to be explored further, but officers said this put the time-limited Government funding in jeopardy, as work needed to start within months.

The Executive exercised rarely-used powers to bar other councillors from calling in their decision for review, saying the work had to be started urgently or they would lose the funding.