New HS2 '˜tunnel plan' has not gone down well with some Leeds residents

Revised plans for HS2 as it passes through Woodlesford have done away with viaducts in favour of a tunnel. Neil Hudson asked residents what they made of the new tunnel plans

Woodlesford might best be described as a ‘fringe’ town, being on the very edge of the Leeds, a stone’s throw from Wakefield but still rural enough to feel distinct from the endless urban sprawl. The drive in affords long views over frost-tinged December fields cut through by dense dark wedges of woodland.

It enjoys today the kind of status towns like Cross Gates did in the 19th century, before they were trampled by the march of industry and the inevitable influx of workers.

For decades, Woodlesford was known as a mining and quarrying village but the last pit closed here in 1983, with sandstone extraction ceasing in the 1960s. Since then, it has become part of the commuter belt, evidenced by the numerous new estates across town.

Since the announcement that the proposed £55bn high speed rail link HS2 would pass through Woodlesford, there have been rumblings of discontent. The original route followed the Aire & Calder Navigation, passing by The Maltings and The Locks estates via a series of 90ft tall viaducts which would have towered over houses and, according to most, blighted the area. A consultation event in 2013 called for alternatives. Last month the Government delivered one.

The new plan is to create what would be the UK’s deepest train tunnel (150ft) which would run beneath the town and negate the need for viaducts. But now those plans have been met largely - although not completely - with disdain.

Carole Hulme, 58, a mother of two and grandmother to one, who works as a teaching assistant at Woodlesford School and whose house is just a few hundred yards from the proposed tunnel entrance, has concerns: “I have lived here 31 years and I can remember these houses flooding. The park where the tunnel will be used to be a quarry and when they filled it in they put all sorts in there.”

Christopher Hoole, a solicitor from Pard Road on the Applegarth Manor estate is one of those affected by the new route. Previously, his house would have been about a mile away from the line but following the changes, it will now be around 200m away.

He said: “People on this estate bought houses based on t