Government funding has been secured in principle for a scheme to reduce congestion at Saltaire roundabout.

The Bradford Council plan would use "increased road space" in a £2.6 million scheme.

It follows top-level talks in London with Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman, who agreed his department would fund half of the costs if the plan were to prove feasible.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, Bradford Council's transport portfolio holder, brokered the deal in return for a withdrawal of the Council's objection to de-trunking the A650.

"We took a new scheme down to the Minister which we think will work," said Coun Hawkesworth. "We expect it will improve safety and reduce congestion by using increased road space.

"I hope it will happen in less than five years. We need it to happen sooner rather than later."

The crunch talks stemmed from a dispute with the Highways Agency, which wants the Council to take control of the A650 from Steeton to Frizinghall. It had offered £800,000, considered a "drop in the ocean", to take over the route, one of the district's major transport headaches.

The talks - which saw Coun Hawkesworth joined by Christopher Hughes, the Council's head of plans and performance, Steve Barton, the head of major works and Shipley's Conservative MP Philip Davies - also yielded progress on long-term plans for the Aire Valley transport network.

The delegation put forward "embryonic" ideas for a new bypass with two short tunnels to link traffic from the Bingley Relief Road to a new Shipley eastern link road proposed in the Airedale masterplan.

The £47.4 million relief road which opened in 2003 is blamed for pushing congestion problems further along the A650.

A second meeting is to be arranged with the Highways Agency and Government Office in Leeds to talk about the viability and funding of the major scheme.

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