Bury Park red route scheme in Luton opposed by scrutiny board

Bury Park is a key commercial, residential and community hub, with high volumes of through traffic and public transport, according to a report to the council’s overview and scrutiny committee.

Concerns about traffic congestion, road safety and inappropriate parking behaviour have been raised by the community over many years, said the report.

“Luton Borough Council’s highways team has developed plans to tackle the longstanding safety concerns in the Bury Park area by improving the traffic flow, and by addressing pedestrian concerns and accessibility issues.

“A large majority of replies to a consultation process last year mentioned high levels of congestion during peak periods and frequent delays to journeys, while there remain pedestrian safety fears.

“After analysing this feedback, and with continued traffic and engineering assessments, potential improvements for Bury Park include:

• restrictions to stop cars illegally parking on footpaths keeping them free for pedestrians and allowing for better accessibility;
• improving safety for pedestrians by removing parked cars around formal crossing points;
• a trial red route for 18 months under an experimental traffic regulation order (ETRO), with a three-minute grace period for drivers to pick up and drop off without receiving a fine;
• increasing car parking availability in the area, of which 120 spaces will be available at Luton Town Football Club, about a five-minute walk from the Dunstable Road shopping area;
• extending loading bay hours from 7pm to 10am to give businesses three hours longer in the mornings to load and unload;
• making the loading bay maximum stay 45 minutes instead of half an hour to support additional loading time for businesses;
• changing the disabled parking bay maximum stay from an hour to 90 minutes;
• and not proceeding with a one-way system along Kenilworth Road.

“Other measures will involve publishing a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation report to measure the impact of the trial red route, and reviewing current parking restrictions in the area to ensure the right balance of visitor pay and display parking.

“More traffic surveys will help identify if bus stop design and layout is contributing to congestion. Old or disused signage, bollards and clutter would be removed.”

But Liberal Democrat Barnfield councillor David Franks recommended the board advise LBC’s executive not to proceed with the introduction of a red route in Bury Park.

Instead, a much more robust enforcement of current regulations is needed, including parking restrictions and shops extending onto pavements, he suggested.

“The board is concerned that year-by-year there are fewer shops in Bury Park, as more are converted into offices, such as estate agents, and food takeaways.

“It supports all reasonable efforts to increase the availability of parking in Bury Park, as well as an approach to Sainsbury’s requesting an extension of the free use of its car park.”

There were six votes in favour of these proposals by councillor Franks, five against and one abstention. The executive committee is expected to consider the board’s reference at its meeting on Monday (August 3).