A new hospital bus service will soon be running for villagers in Cullingworth and Denholme.

The new rural bus service will be funded by Leeds-based Metro and provide a direct service to the Bradford Royal Infirmary and the city's St Lukes Hospital.

But the chairman of Cullingworth parish council has expressed his disappointment that no more buses will run to Airedale Hospital.

The proposed route into Bradford will start in Den-holme and pass through Cullingworth, before heading through Wilsden. It will then head along Haworth Road before turning down Heights Lane and Daisy Hill towards the BRI. Buses will then continue along Squire Lane and Allerton Road towards St Lukes.

The new service is expected to be up and running by April, and buses will run hourly from 9am-8pm.

But a proposed service to Airedale Hospital at Steeton has been put on ice for the foreseeable future.

Cullingworth parish council chairman Cllr John Brigg and Denholme town council mayor Cllr Russell Driver recently attended a meeting with the Passenger Transport Authority (PTA), the representative body of Metro. During the meeting they discussed what new bus route would be most beneficial to the people of both Denholme and Cullingworth.

Cllr Brigg says: "We are delighted about the new service to the BRI and St Lukes, but disappointed about the decision not to have a service to Airedale General. There is about a 50-50 split of villagers who go to both hospitals so it is great for the people who go to BRI, but we are still looking to push for a direct service to Airedale."

One possible lifeline for a service to Airedale Hospital is the government's Rural Trans-port Community Partnership.

The initiative offers an annual grant of £4 million to rural areas keen on introducing community-led bus schemes.

Cllr Brigg says he will suggest the idea of a service to Airedale when he next meets with Metro representatives.

Cllr Ken Batchelor also raised the issue of what measures will be used to ensure that the bus is used only by people travelling to the hospital. He said: "I think we need to know if this will be used as a dormitory bus service, and what can be done to police it to ensure it is only used by people travelling to the hospitals."

Cullingworth parish councillors have voiced their concern about the lack of traffic plans for a proposed new secondary school. Parish councillors fear that levels of traffic congestion on Parkside Terrace would become far greater if Parkside Middle School received secondary status. And they are worried about the lack of a plan to deal with the increase in traffic such a change in status would bring.

Cllr Brigg said: "Parkside Terrace is already congested with parked cars because most people who live along there don't have a garage. The number of buses and cars down there at school times is quite horrendous and there isn't a lot of room for buses and cars to turn at the school.

"If the school does receive secondary status the school population will double to about 1,000 pupils, with perhaps double the traffic.'

Councillor Brigg, who is also a governor at Parkside, adds: "We, as a parish council, are concerned that there has been nothing put forward by the LEA to deal with that.'

Residents living in Parkside Terrace say the narrow street is already congested by parents dropping off and picking their children up from the school.

Cullingworth Parish councillors are calling on Bradford council to repair a dry stone wall near Cow House Bridge.

They say it would be cheaper to repair the wall than replace it with an alternative barrier.

Councillors also argue that the damaged wall could present a road safety hazard if any loose stones fall onto the road.

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