£30m plan to upgrade three '˜congestion hotspot' Leeds road junctions

Members of Leeds City Council’s executive board have approved the spending of £1.25m to draw up plans to upgrade for the Dawsons Corner roundabout in Stanningley; the crossroads where the A660 Leeds Road crosses the A658 between Leeds-Bradford Airport and Pool-in-Wharfedale at Dyneley Arms; and the junction of Fink Hill with the Outer Ring Road in Horsforth.

Council chiefs have stressed that plans are at an early stage and a full consultation would be carried out before any work takes place.

Leeds Conservative Group leader Coun Andrew Carter, told the meeting: “Dawsons corner is a major junction which is now running at over capacity at peak times with the obvious results, particularly in relation to air pollution.

“The crucial matter at Dawsons Corner is to move traffic more fluently through that junction on all its four legs and that’s what the prime objectives of this scheme must be as the pollution must be getting higher and higher all the time.”

If the schemes go ahead, the majority of the money is likely to come from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, the body which brings councils together to work on areas including transport improvements.

Leeds City Council could also contribute to the cost of the Dawsons Corner upgrade.

Coun Carter added: “The sooner this is out for consultation the better because it’s absolutely right that it’s dealt with sooner rather than later.

“They are clearly junctions that we need to tackle.”

The report to executive board states: “Leeds City Council transportation has identified a number of junctions which are congestion hotspots, which are constraining network capacity.”