Ministers urged to act to ease pressure on roads

Commuters warned of severe delays at the New York Road flyover in Leeds

The next government is being urged to increase transport spending to speed up road repairs, as figures showed West Yorkshire had some of the most snarled up highways in the region.

Department for Transport (DfT) data analysed by the BBC showed that in Leeds last year, 8.3% of A-roads were being repaired, with Bradford second at 7.4%.

Henri Murison, chief executive of transport think tank the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, urged politicians on the General Election trail to invest boldly in new infrastructure rather than endlessly “patching and mending".

The DfT said it had diverted millions of pounds towards highways maintenance that would have been spent on the now-scrapped HS2 northern leg.

Highways teams are working around the clock in Bradford city centre in preparation for the UK City of Culture year in 2025

In contrast to West Yorkshire, just 2.2% of A roads were undergoing repairs last year in Sheffield, while the figure was 10 times lower than Leeds in the East Riding, despite having a similar number of main roads.

Leeds is currently undergoing the latest of several large phases of roadworks in and around the city centre, with major disruption to traffic near the New York Road flyover.

Over in Bradford meanwhile, highways teams are working round the clock to get the city centre ready for hosting the UK City of Culture in 2025.

The BBC asked the opinions of motorists queuing at the Leeds flyover, with a taxi driver saying his journey through the area was delayed by 20 minutes on average.

He said: "I am losing my earnings because of the traffic."

A commuter said there were still “loads of potholes” and “the conditions are really bad".

He added: "We pay a lot of money towards taxes and stuff for vehicles. But we're not seeing any progress on roads. I would appreciate if they get it sorted.”

Motorists in Leeds told the BBC of their frustrations - and urged ministers to spend more

Mr Murison acknowledged that "you can't improve anything in our road network without some disruption" and praised efforts by local authorities in both Leeds and Bradford to make the network more "resilient".

But he said the sheer amount of roadworks was symptomatic of bigger underlying issues.

"Our highways in the north of England are under invested because the current government has promised many times it wants to deal with potholes, and hasn't put the money in there," he told BBC Politics North.

"They have said there's new money because HS2 to the north is now not going to happen. Well, in reality, the money could have always been spent.

"I think whoever wins the next election needs to be honest with the British public. It isn't actually a trade-off between very long-term projects and maintaining the things we've already built.

"Any civilised country, any Western economy, has to maintain its existing roads and railways, and build new ones."

Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a transport think tank

A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said: “Local highways authorities are responsible for maintaining their road networks, but we’re supporting them with the biggest ever increase in funding for local road improvements made possible by an extra £8.3bn of reallocated HS2 funding.

“West Yorkshire Combined Authority will receive £830m between 2022/23 and 2026/27, which includes funding for highways maintenance, as well as an increase of over £4.6m for 2023/24 and also 2024/25 for roads resurfacing, made possible by reallocated HS2 funding.”

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