THE Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has been asked to investigate plans for work in a disused railway tunnel.

Queensbury Tunnel is currently the focus of a campaign to reopen it as part of a cycle network linking Bradford and Keighley to Halifax, but Highways England, which looks after the Victorian structure on the Department for Transport’s behalf, intends to partly infill and close it. The Queensbury Tunnel Society (QTS) says the southern end of the tunnel is currently flooded to a depth of 13ft after a pumping station installed by Highways England was switched off. According to QTS, plans have been developed for a new dewatering system which would involve the floodwater being pumped 1.4 miles to the north end of the tunnel. The society says heavy machinery would have to be used to create an access route through a section of the tunnel which is blocked by fallen rock. The group says the HSE has also been asked to consider whether flooding should have been resolved before the preparatory works.

Highways England said it was aware of the society’s concerns, pointed out that its contractor had “significant experience” of working in tunnels and added that the HSE raised no concerns with its method statements and safety systems.