Major Wakefield road improvement schemes and Outwood Railway Station redevelopment to be ‘paused’

The delays come as West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) looks to “pipeline” dozens of transport schemes across the region to make savings of around £270m.

It could mean some long-awaited projects may now not be completed until towards the end of this decade.

The car park improvement plan at Outwood Railway Station has been identified as one of the schemes to be stalled.

The work is to involve building a 167-space car park to improve capacity and prevent unauthorised parking in residential areas by commuters.

As well as additional parking spaces, the scheme will provide CCTV, enhanced drainage and LED lighting.

A report states: “A number of rail park and ride schemes will be paused and added to the pipeline.

“This will allow demand levels to be further reviewed as current demand levels have not yet returned to pre-covid levels.

“As demand increases we will further review schemes at that point.”

Other transport schemes in Wakefield that face being delayed include £6m worth of improvements to the A638 Doncaster Road.The scheme proposes a range of improvements along the A638 between the junction of Black Road, at Heath Common, and Chantry Bridge.

A project to improve bus journeys, cycling and walking along the A61 Leeds-Wakefield Road also looks set to be put back, along with a similar scheme at Owl Lane.

The plans will be discussed at a meeting of WYCA’s Finance, Resources and Corporate Committee on Thursday.

Many of the projects look set to be paused until new funding becomes available.

The report says: “Costs have and continue to increase on all transport programmes, however the funding allocation remains the same, meaning there is a significant risk that the funding allocations won’t be able to fund all the current projects within the transport programmes.

“The Combined Authority and partners want to continue to deliver the programmes in their entirety, therefore the agreed way forward is to pause and pipeline certain projects for delivery over a longer time frame and continue to deliver prioritised projects at pace.”

Ongoing projects that will continue to be prioritised include the A650 improvement works at Newton Bar roundabout.

The Castleford Growth Corridor Scheme will also continue.

This scheme aims to construct a new link road, improving the highway and reducing congestion in the town.

A spokesperson for WYCA said: “Record levels of inflation, combined with the knock-on effects of Brexit, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, are having a significant impact on the costs of infrastructure projects across the country.

“We have worked closely with our local authority partners to minimise this disruption and ensure no part of the region is unfairly impacted as we identify schemes that can be paused and delivered over a longer time period.

“We await the upcoming Autumn Statement and hope that ministers will spare local government from another round of austerity so that projects like these that will help deliver growth and higher living standards across all parts of the country can go ahead.”