BINGLEY Councillors have spoken out about the ‘chaos’ that was caused after part of a major Bradford road was closed for filming for the entire day yesterday.

Part of Sir Fred Hoyle Way which connects Bingley with neighbouring towns including Saltaire and Keighley was shut from 6 am until 9 pm on Sunday, May 15 with one side of the dual carriageway being used for traffic travelling in both directions.

A public notice was published by the Bradford council last week, but residents, councillors and Bingley Town council have been left confused as to why Bradford Council allowed such a major road to be closed.

Cllr Winnard, Bingley said: “The closure caused a degree of chaos through Bingley yesterday. There was a huge stretch of traffic going all the way from Cottingley and through to the town centre.

“People are very frustrated that the council permitted the filming without fully understanding the consequences. 

"It is a problem that there was no consultation and caused this level of destruction in the middle of Bingley.

“I really want to know how much the production company paid and to the extent what money would come back to Bingley residents.”

Cllr Dearden, Bingley criticised the Council and said ‘there wasn’t enough widespread notice’ to close the bypass.

He said: “People should’ve known more about it. I still don’t know a lot about it now, but I’ve been sent footage from 10 am, 12 pm, 2 o’clock and 6 o’clock the day and the traffic never stopped queuing through Bingley but there hasn’t been an explanation or anything.

“There’s a meeting tonight so I hope someone can shed some light on it. If people had known more in advance they could’ve taken alternative routes and avoided it.”

Social media posts show huge queues of traffic building up on the road, and one person commented that it wasn't just Bingley that it was having an impact on, but traffic was also ‘crawling’ through to Riddlesden and the Skipton bypass ‘was horrendous.’

David Wilson, Director of Bradford UNESCO City of Film SAID: “As City of Film we try to do everything we can to support film in our district.

“It is not unusual for film and television productions to film on UK highways and in Bradford our highways team carefully consider requests before granting closures.

“The closure was advertised in line with national regulations two weeks ahead of time in the local papers and on the publicly accessible website one.network.

“We understand filming can create some disruption but believe the local benefits are significant.”

It has now been confirmed that the filming is for a new BBC thriller series called 'Better'.