Call Lane Leeds ripped up as £25m makeover including Corn Exchange begins

The diggers have moved in to one of the city's most well known streets as part of plans to redesign this corner of the city.

Call Lane, famed for its nightlife, will be completely closed to through traffic once the work is complete.

There will also be a new cycle way on Lower Briggate and wider pavements outside the Corn Exchange.

It is all part of Connecting Leeds' plans to make the area more pedestrian and cyclist friendly, as well as prioritising buses over cars.

The 'Perspex tunnel' row of bus stops in front of the Corn Exchange will also be removed completely and replaced with high quality bus stops with real time and audio information.

The entire Corn Exchange and Call Lane scheme is expected to be complete by winter of this year.

Leeds City Council's Executive Member for Climate Change, Transport and Sustainable Development, Councillor Lisa Mulherin, has said: “We want to stress that we are working hard to create many more new routes which offer improved safety for people to walk and cycle, offering convenience and championing health and wellbeing for our residents."

The wider Connecting Leeds Transport Strategy paints a picture of Leeds as a place in years to come where everyone has an affordable, zero carbon choice for how they travel, with the key objectives being to tackle climate change, deliver inclusive growth, and improve health and wellbeing.

Last year, the Yorkshire Evening Post's Unlock the Gridlock campaign, which set out five key transport priorities in response to concerns consistently raised by readers about the congestion and unreliable public transport networks that were blighting their lives on a daily basis.

The Call Lane images, taken by resident of the street Mariusz Szymczak, come as new plans for a multi-billion pound mass transit system covering the whole of West Yorkshire were revealed today (Wednesday).

Although it is not yet known what the total cost of the scheme would be, it is expected to run to at least several billions of pounds.

Regional leaders hope West Yorkshire’s new mayoral authority will help make the dream a reality.

Plans include nine potential lines, with dozens of stops, including Leeds Bradford Airport, Leeds General Infirmary, St James’s Hospital, Elland Road and the White Rose Centre. Unlike previous proposals, the scheme covers the whole of the region, stretching to Huddersfield, Halifax, Pontefract, Bradford and Wakefield.