Nearly £30m for Leeds & Liverpool Canal

Nearly £30 million is being spent on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in a City Connect Scheme, but alas not for the waterway, but yet again for its towpath.

The first section of major improvements to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal towpath has been unveiled as the Canal & River Trust reopens a 1¼ mile upgraded section at Kirkstall, which is part of the £29 million City Connect project to create a 14 mile long upgraded cycle track between the East of Leeds and the centre of Bradford.

Safer to get around

We are told that the upgraded towpath 'will make it easier and safer to get around on foot and by bike, giving better access, improving travel options and reducing road congestion'.

Work is now continuing on the remainder of the 10 miles towpath between Kirkstall and Shipley which will be opened in stages and is due to be fully completed by early summer.

Canal & River Trust Manager Nick Smith explained:

"This is a fantastic project which will improve links between these two great cities. The new towpath surfacing is an integral part of this work and it's great to see good progress being made with the first section of the towpath being re-opened."

Cycle super highway

Ginny Leonard, Communications Manager for City Connect enthused:

"The canal towpath resurface was a natural choice of route to complement the cycle superhighway and extends the corridor to more leisure users. We hope having a choice of safe cycle routes linking communities will encourage more and more people to choose cycling as their mode of travel for shorter journeys."