Dunstable road changes aren’t working admits council - with more roadworks set to start in April

The junction will revert to its former signage

Work had taken place at the junction of Church Street, West Street and the old High Street – but now the council is set to reinstate some of the old system.

A spokesman said: “There have been many changes and enhancements made on Dunstable High Street following the investment we secured to make the town centre more attractive.“You welcomed the important enhancements like the improved pavements, new pedestrian crossings, and landscaping that also features rain gardens with large underground water tanks to reduce the flood risk.“However, we know many of you preferred elements of how the old High Street, Church Street, and West Street junction worked so we listened and ran a new traffic analysis looking at the latest traffic counts. This data shows that the previous Church Street junction layout does offer slight journey time savings for road users.”

Work is set to start in April which will see the system revert to the right lane only being for traffic turning right from Church Street onto High Street North and the left lane will go back to being for vehicles going straight onto West Street and turning left onto High Street South.

The work is scheduled to take about five days to complete and will require some road closures and diversions.

The council-led and coordinated £7 million Dunstable High Street improvement scheme was funded by Homes England, National Highways, SEMLEP, the Local Growth Fund, and Anglian Water.

The extensive scheme featured a range of pedestrian improvements widening the footways with new seating areas and improving crossing points.

The move was met with scathing comments on social media. One said: “Just an idea, but next time please can you do some analysis BEFORE you spend our money? Maybe a questionnaire to the residents, who would have told you (and indeed did on your FB posts) that this idea was doomed to fail.”

Another added: “Straight out of Monty Python. You couldn't make it up. And why not put all four approaches back the way they were?”