A NEW motorway junction improving Bradford's links with Huddersfield is one of the schemes approved in a £1 billion transport deal.

The M62 is to get a junction 24a, linking it to the A641 Bradford Road at Brighouse, while other improvements are planned in Bradford, Keighley and around Leeds-Bradford airport.

The £1 billion West Yorkshire Plus Transport Fund, covering West Yorkshire and York, will run from 2015 to 2025, but it still is not clear whether people's council tax bills will be hiked to help pay for all.

The works are designed to be carbon neutral and aim to help people living in West Yorkshire's poorest neighbourhoods travel to employment areas.

Bradford Council leader, Councillor David Green, said they would give the local economy a major boost.

He said: "This fund will deliver economic benefits for Bradford and the whole region.

"An efficient regional transport system is the key to increasing economic prosperity and sustainability over the next decade, especially for people living in more deprived areas.

"Better transport will increase employment options, as well as providing faster journeys, de-congestion and improved air quality."

The first project to begin will be a major improvement to a heavily-congested junction, at Harrogate Road and New Line in Greengates, Bradford.

The £6.8 million project is designed to ease traffic flows, improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists and prepare the area for new housing developments.

Improvements to the Tong Street corridor in Bradford, Hard Ings Road in Keighley, the Calder Valley railway line and the roads leading to Leeds-Bradford airport will be finished by 2021.

Later schemes include the new M62 junction, as well as improvements to the A641 Bradford to Huddersfield corridor, and Canal Road and Manningham Lane in Bradford.

However, it still is not yet clear whether local council tax bills will be going up as a result.

The Government is providing about 80 per cent of the cash for the £1 billion transport fund, but the rest has to be raised locally.

Many of the local councils want to add a transport payment to people's council tax bills, rather than have to find the cash from their shrinking budgets.

But the West Yorkshire Combined Authority is still in talks with the Government over whether it will be allowed to do this, as part of a new deal devolving more powers to the Leeds City Region.

They were expected to seal the devolution deal before Christmas, but that did not happened, mainly because of a disagreement over whether West Yorkshire needs an elected mayor to go with any new powers.