A PROPOSED parkway station and link routes for Leeds Bradford Airport are about to come under scrutiny in a public consultation.

Leeds City Council will launch the latest phase of its consultation on Monday, February 18, and the public are being invited to have their say.

The council, working in conjunction with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, has released details of the link routes and the planned location of the parkway, between Scotland Lane and Cookridge, on the Leeds-Harrogate line. A series of public meetings will now take place.

The link route options are -

•A: Building of a new road and footway/cycleway from the A65, running along the eastern edge of the airport before joining the A658 to the north.

. B: Building a new road and footway/cycleway that follows the same initial path from the A65, runs to the south west of the airport before joining the A658 where it enters the runway tunnel.

•C: Upgrading the existing A65 and A658 around Rawdon and Yeadon to the airport.

The parkway will include a 350 space park and ride car park, a station building and bus interchange.

A report to councillors says: “LBA is already a huge asset for Leeds and Leeds City Region. It is one of the UK’s fastest growing airports, supporting over 5,000 jobs and contributing £336m to the city region economy each year. The Department for Transport (DfT) has forecast that there is the potential to increase the number of passengers using the airport to 7.1 million per year by 2030 and to 9 million by 2050.”

It add:”Current surface access to LBA is poor with existing routes being affected by congestion, resulting in rat-running with associated negative impacts on local settlements. There is a likelihood that conditions will worsen without any infrastructure improvements, given the forecast growth of LBA coupled with the proposed employment allocation.”

Yeadon ward councillors are urging residents to take part in the latest round of consultations.

“This is an opportunity for the local community to influence not only what happens around the airport but the highway / transport links over a wider area”, said Cllr Downes. “We are urging residents to go along to the drop in session at the Town Hall on February 25 to make sure their views are heard.”

Cllr Sandy Lay said: “The issue for many is the lack of joined up solutions for roads and rail to ensure connection with the airport, the local area, Leeds station and the motorway network. The proposals do show a staggering lack of long term vision and innovation from the Council and WYCA.”

Cllr Colin Campbell said: “Whatever is decided it needs Government money to bring it to reality. If the government seriously wants to improve transport links in the north they need to commit to funding schemes which will benefit our local community rather than pouring money into London and the South East.”