DECISIONS normally made by elected councillors may now be made by officers and bosses if the coronavirus leads to Council meetings being cancelled.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Transport Committee regularly meets to discuss some of the biggest transport and infrastructure projects in the area.

When the committee met yesterday, the issue of Covid-19 was discussed.

With a number of major decisions due to be made over coming months, members passed a motion that would allow “timely progress” to be made on these decisions if meetings are cancelled.

Upcoming topics that the committee are likely to discuss in the coming months include a new mass transit system for West Yorkshire, green transport measures including cycleways and plans to create or improve new bus routes.

The next meeting is due to take place in May.

But at yesterday’s meeting members were told that there was a very real chance upcoming meetings will be called off due to plans to avoid spreading the virus.

The motion read: “To delegate authority to the Managing Director and Directors of the Combined Authority to take any action and decisions they consider necessary, which would ordinarily fall to be taken by the Transport Committee to ensure the timely progress of the business of the Committee.

“This is subject to consultation with the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Transport Committee, and in consultation with members of the Committee.”

The meeting was also told that a series of meetings due to begin next week would now be cancelled.

A consultation sub committee was due to be held in each of the five districts that make up the Combined Authority Area, including Bradford, to discuss ways to encourage more young people to use public transport.

The Bradford meeting would also have received updates on a number of transport schemes, including the Canal Road Corridor widening scheme and improvements to the Greengates Junction.

Committee Chair Councillor Kim Groves said: “We don’t want to be creating more gatherings of people then we need to be. We need to take precautions to make sure the decision making process continues.”

The committee questioned whether other options could be taken, including Skype. But officers said the meetings would have to be held in public - and members speaking online via Skype would not be able to achieve this.

The meeting also heard from Matt Rice from Network Rail, who said the rail service was monitoring the pandemic.

He said they aimed to continue running as many services as possible, but this would depend on staffing - and key routes may need to be prioritised.