Work on Luton’s park and ride to start ‘late summer’ despite councillor branding project 'stupid'

Once open, there is to be a frequent bus service connecting Butterfield Park to Luton town centre and Luton Airport Parkway.

Luton Borough Council’s plans for the 285-space park and ride were given the green light by the planning development committee earlier this year, despite pushback from Stopsley councillor David Wynn.

A council spokesperson said the five-mile journey is expected to take between 10 and 15 minutes, and offers “a convenient alternative to driving into the town centre” once the site is operational – which is expected to be in spring 2026.

But Cllr Wynn has expressed his confusion over “who's going to use this park and ride”.

The Liberal Democrat councillor said: “You’ve got cars coming in from Hitchin, Letchworth, Stevenage, and they're coming in on Hitchin Road. Ask yourself: Where are those cars going? They're either going down Stopsley Way to Vauxhall Way and going up to Junction 10, or some of them might be going into the town centre.

“The original plan was that the park and ride was going to be serviced by a regular bus service – using small-ish buses because there are no bus lanes from there to go into town.

“There's no space to build any because you can't build going down Hitchin Road. So they were going to use small buses, and they were going to be on a regular time scale. We never have found out yet how frequently those buses would run, or what the costs are.”

But the council said its reasoning behind the new park and ride facility at Butterfield is to “help tackle congestion, improve air quality, and support more sustainable travel into and around Luton”. The scheme is part of the council’s five-year Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) and is funded by the Department for Transport.

Cllr Wynn said: “When [the planning development committee] were having the meeting about the park and ride, I exercised my right as a ward councillor to go and represent against them building the park and ride.

“I told them that this is a complete and utter white elephant. Frankly, I don't care whether the central government has said you can only spend it on that, I would prefer to even give the central government its money back.”

A council spokesperson said: “Once operational, the Park and Ride is projected to intercept approximately 328 cars each day, helping to alleviate pressure on local roads. The site is also expected to support increased traffic volumes during Luton Town Football Club matchdays, offering an additional tool to reduce congestion and improve local air quality.”

Beech Hill councillor Javed Hussain, who has supported the project, doubled down on the positives of the facility – especially for football fans.

He said: "If you came off the motorway at Junction 10, you could just go [to Butterfield], park there, instead of going to town, and then take the bus shuttle into the town centre for if you're here for a few hours, or lots of hours, shopping and everything.

“But it would definitely be quite integral to football and our development for the stadium so that people can leave their cars there and not bring cars to the town centre.”

But Cllr Wynn added: “So maybe a football fan might be able to park their car there and go into town, watch the match and then get the bus back to there and then go home. That might work. But even if that was the case, that's what? Every other weekend.”

The planning approval allows for 285 standard parking spaces, 32 EV charging spaces, 17 disabled spaces, and four parent and child spaces. It is intended there will be two bus stop areas, including shelters and some motorcycle and bicycle spaces. There will also be a small office.

An on-demand bus service is something the council is also looking into.

For those wanting to use the park and ride facility to access the airport, Cllr Hussain said: “The people going to the airport could use the normal buses, we've got buses that go to the airport. We've got the DART.”

According to Cllr Wynn, there will be no overnight parking on the site.

He said: “So it's not as though the car parking is going to be useful for the airport, and they will not be allowing it to be used as an airport car park. And as far as I know, the bus services they're proposing are only going to go into Luton. They're not going to go, for example, to the airport.”

He said: “I started out saying it was stupid, and I still think it's stupid, and nothing I've seen has changed my mind.”

Despite Cllr Wynn’s disapproval, Cllr Hussain reassured the town about the necessity of this project.

He said: “We're going to have to make some brave decisions to reduce car usage, and part of that is to improve our buses – make them more sustainable, make them more reliable.

“There's no one answer that will fix this, and it's going to be a number of interventions.”