MT 152/136

West Riding CC: Shipley Northern Bypass (Including Aire Valley Route) (A650) ; consideration of alternative proposals and correspondence with local authorities

Date range	1963-1969
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series MT, subseries MT 152

Chris5156 is returning to this file later. Why this might be the case is open to all manner of unsavoury speculation, but one insuperable fact remains: Chris5156 has taken this file out before, and he has every intention of taking it out again soon. In most cases this is because he wants camera copies and wasn't able to get them on the first attempt, but it may also be just because he misses it and longs to be near it again.

Context

Throughout the 1960s and for most of the 1970s, the trunk roads programme included a scheme to improve the road network in the densely populated valleys north of Bradford. The proposal was, in short, to provide a road of roughly motorway standard (often described as a motorway and with the number M650 sometimes attached) from Bradford City Centre northwards, bypassing Shipley, Bingley and Keighley, and probably connecting to improved roads towards Colne and Skipton.

The scheme was sent into a tailspin when the Bingley Bypass was thrown out in an incredibly unruly public inquiry in the mid-1970s, the first occasion on which a road scheme had been so vociferously opposed. As a result the plans went into hiding and emerged again in the 1980s and 1990s as a series of small-scale schemes, providing an at-grade dual carriageway upgrade to the A650 around Keighley. The Bingley Relief Road opened (to local cheers, it must be noted) in 2004.

This file describes the original vision for the road from Bradford (though not reaching right into the city itself) to Keighley, including details of the proposed alignment, junction locations and in some cases layouts, alternative routing ideas, proposals for canal realignment to enable the road construction work and more. As the file title suggests, it includes a wealth of correspondence regarding the scheme, which was sponsored by West Riding County Council.

Contents of note

• Route plans showing the alignment of roads around Bingley and Shipley, including the fabled Shipley Bypass and west-of-Bingley alignment.
• Series of plan sheets showing the route of the road from north of Keighley to the suburbs of Bradford.

People with camera copies

Chris Marshall has copies of the diagrams, and will be back later for more.

James Bancroft has copies of the maps.