A PLAN to spend millions of pounds on Horsforth Roundabout is being slammed by Aireborough Civic Society.

The group, which has campaigned for nearly ten years for improvements to the roundabout, says there are far better ways of spending the money than the proposed scheme.

And it is reminding residents that they have just a few days left to comment on the proposals in a consultation which ends on December 12.

ACS Chairman Clive Woods said: "I should like us to be supporting this latest plan after the disappointment of the 2015 scheme, which has actually made congestion on the A65 from Rawdon to the Horsforth Roundabout much worse."

He added: "However the new scheme will do very little to improve the long queues from Rawdon as they are only going to spend money of two quite short lengths of dual carriageway on the Ring Road towards Rodley. The money could be far better spent than this.

He added: "I think that it is quite shocking that after spending £2.8 millions on a scheme that did not do what was promised there was no evaluation or corrective plans put forward. Instead this scheme seems to be unaware of the problems that were never solved and then want to spend more millions on a few hundred yards (or metres) of dual carriageway. This is made worse by emphasising some relatively minor gains for cyclists and claiming that pedestrians would want to walk next to an extremely busy, fast road."

In a civic society statement he said: "Congestion has been a problem since the 1990s, but it became much worse after it was ‘improved’ and signalised. In particular journeys towards Leeds from Yeadon and Rawdon along the A65 are now congested frequently throughout the day and at weekends, and not just during the morning peak.

Mr Woods said the earlier scheme actually made congestion on the A65 worse worse, significantly increasing bus journey times by up to 33 per cent.

He said: "As far as I am aware there has been no proper evaluation of the £2.8 million scheme. Nor have I seen any evidence that the current scheme will be any more successful especially as it does not even attempt to tackle the real congestion issue – the A65 from Rawdon towards Leeds, where traffic often queues from the Airedale Works.

He said: "The latest scheme for the Horsforth Roundabout is really disappointing. I attended the consultation session in Horsforth recently and was very disappointed how limited the changes were – essentially a short section of 2 lanes of traffic on the Ring Road. The extremely severe congestion on the A65 has always been much worse than for the Ring Road."

He added:"We need 2 lanes of traffic from Airedale Works, Rawdon on the A65 towards the Horsforth Roundabout. But there is nothing here for the A65, just the 2 lanes for the part of the Ring Road towards Rodley. This might bring a slight improvement, but ignores the real problems. It is claimed it will benefit cyclists, but far more would benefit from improvements to the A65 as cyclists use bus lanes. "

The public consultation was launched last month on the £20 million scheme to tackle congestion and improve safety on the busy ring road between Horsforth and Pudsey.

Leeds City Council says its plans will improve traffic flow and increase safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

The proposals, described as “ambitious”, aim to reduce peak-time congestion and delays on the busy section of the outer ring road, while improving the infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists and linking the surrounding communities with alternative travel choices. The council says the improvements will also maximise other, separately funded investments at Dawson’s Corner, and part-fund the well-progressed improvements at Horsforth’s Fink Hill junction at Broadway, due on site in the spring. It said the scheme would ease congestion at Horsforth roundabout.

To comment on the plans e-mail connectingleeds@leeds.gov.uk, telephone 0113 395 6300, write to Freepost LCC Improvements or visit https://connectingwestleeds.commonplace.is/