ANSWERS are being demanded over delays to a £1.5 million scheme designed to help ease Keighley's chronic traffic congestion.

Earlier this year top-level pledges were issued that the jam-busting initiative, to create a one-way triangle around the town centre, was on course and blueprints were being drawn up.

But Coun Andrew Mallinson, a member of Keighley Area Committee and the Town Centre Association, said nothing more had been heard.

"As members of the Area Committee we were promised we would be part of the design stage and consultation yet everything has gone quiet," he said.

"Normally when funding is ring-fenced for a project it is only for a limited time period so how long do we have before this money has to be spent?

"People want to know, and deserve to know, what is happening with this scheme.

"My understanding was that the modelling for it had been done and surely that would mean it was designed.

"Nobody knows the town centre better than the people who live here and the councillors who represent them and we should be an integral part of the process.

"This situation suggests to me that either the funding is not available as first promised or the data doesn't show a significant benefit."

The planned one-way system would operate along Hanover Street, Cavendish Street and East Parade.

And it would tie in with proposals to turn Hard Ings Road into a dual carriageway.

Joe Grint, Bradford Council's principal highway engineer, said this week that the one-way scheme was still very much alive.

"We have reached the stage where detailed design work can start on the project and we expect that consultation will begin later this year or early in 2015," he told us.

Coun Mallinson said he would like to see a temporary scheme set up and its effects on traffic flows monitored.

"It could just be for a few weeks but it would give us an idea of what would work," he added.

"I feel that what is proposed represents a drop in the ocean compared to what is actually needed.

"Something has to be done but I would still push for a bigger scheme – a full gyratory around the town, not just the town centre."