ANGER has greeted news this week that a £100,000 flood repair scheme in Otley could be abandoned due to council budget cuts.

The surface of Back Bridge Avenue was virtually destroyed during last winter's floods, which left many of the properties in Bridge Avenue and Farnley Lane under water.

Leeds City Council has the full resurfacing work that is needed included in its long list of pending flood repair projects.

But this week's executive board meeting heard that, due to the priority of fixing Linton Bridge, near Wetherby, other repairs "may have to wait a considerable time or may not be completed at all".

Instead, the board was asked to approve plans to spend £4.5 million – the total given by the Government for flood-related road repairs – on restoring the damaged bridge, which links Linton and Collingham.

Ward councillors Colin Campbell, Ryk Downes and Sandy Lay (all Lib Dem, Otley and Yeadon) are furious about the announcement.

Cllr Campbell said: "It’s bad enough that residents in Otley have had to wait seven months already for the road to be brought back up to standard, but to find out the essential repairs may never be done is unacceptable."

Cllr Downes added: “We get that there are funding pressures on the council.

"But these works need doing and it is not good enough to refuse to do them. The money will have to be found."

Cllr Lay said: "The whole road needs to be resurfaced after the flooding.

"We are happy to work with the council to try and ensure the works are done so residents have a safe road with a proper surface."

The city council believes it will cost about £4.85 million to fix all of the flood-damaged roads in its area, including Linton Bridge.

The report presented to the executive board singles out the Otley resurfacing scheme as one of those that might be axed due to a funding shortfall.

It states that: "Notable pressures on departmental budgets that mean repairs [which] may have to wait a considerable time or that may not be completed at all are the repairs to Back Bridge Avenue in Otley, that requires a full resurfacing at a cost of £100,000."

The report concludes by recommending that councillors "approve the injection of, and give authority to spend, the £4.5 millon Government grant for local road repairs into the bridge maintenance capital programme for the sole purpose of expeditious repairs to Linton Bridge.

"Any remaining funding at completion of the repairs is to be distributed proportionally to the cost of repairs to other Leeds City Council infrastructure assets."

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