Luton's Executive approved an 18-month trial red route for Bury Park on 3 August, with a three-minute grace period and 120 spaces at Luton Town's ground.

Luton Council’s Executive has approved an 18-month trial red route through Bury Park, against the advice of its own scrutiny board. The decision was taken at the Executive meeting of 3 August and published on 5 August as decision EX/83/26, according to the public decision sheet. The wards affected are Central and Beech Hill.

The red route will run under an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order. Drivers will get a three-minute grace period to pick up and drop off without a fine.

What was approved

The report of the Major Projects Manager sets out the measures the Executive agreed:

  • an 18-month trial red route under an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order, with a three-minute grace period for pick-up and drop-off
  • 120 car parking spaces at Luton Town Football Club, about a five-minute walk from the Dunstable Road shops, available every day except match days and the day before a match
  • footway parking restrictions, to stop cars parking on the pavements
  • removing parked cars from around formal crossing points
  • loading bay hours extended from 7pm to 7am, out to 7pm to 10am
  • loading bay maximum stay raised from 30 minutes to 45 minutes
  • disabled bay maximum stay raised from 60 minutes to 90 minutes

One proposal was dropped. The one-way system on Kenilworth Road will not go ahead, after objections during the consultation.

The council also committed to publishing a monitoring and evaluation report at six months and at 12 months after the trial starts. It said it would review existing parking restrictions in the area, run further traffic surveys to test whether bus stop layouts are adding to congestion, and remove disused signage, bollards and clutter.

The original proposal put the red route along Leagrave Road between Selbourne Road and Dunstable Road, along Dunstable Road between Westbourne Road and Hatters Way, and on Bury Park Road.

The scrutiny board said no

The Overview and Scrutiny Board had recommended the opposite. Its reference to the Executive, recorded as decision EX/80/26, asked the council not to introduce a red route in Bury Park, and to enforce existing restrictions much more robustly instead. The board also raised concerns about shops extending onto the pavement, and about the number of Bury Park shops being converted into takeaways and offices such as estate agents.

The Executive noted those recommendations rather than accepting them, then approved the red route under the next item.

The board also backed asking Sainsbury’s to extend the free use of its car park.

What the consultation found

The council consulted from 29 September to 9 November 2025. It distributed 4,000 leaflets and ran drop-in events, stakeholder meetings and an online survey. More than 175 people attended an event and 2,464 survey responses were received, of which 2,347 carried a valid postcode, according to the consultation response and recommendations report.

On the problem, respondents largely agreed:

  • 81% reported high levels of congestion at peak times
  • 79% said their journey times were delayed
  • 53% reported safety concerns crossing the road

On the red route itself, they did not:

  • 39% agreed it would improve traffic flow
  • 37% agreed it would improve public transport journey times
  • 43% agreed it would reduce unsafe and illegal parking

The split ran between residents and businesses. Residents were more than three times as likely as businesses to agree that a red route would address public transport delays. They were twice as likely to agree it would help with congestion and with unsafe parking.

The council’s report links the pressure in part to Luton Town’s promotion to the Premier League in 2023. It says the changes are needed to meet the authority’s duties under the Traffic Management Act 2004.

What it means for you

If you drive to the Bury Park shops, the practical change is where you can stop. On a red route you cannot stop on the marked sections at all, beyond the three-minute grace period for picking up and dropping off. The council’s answer to that is the 120 spaces at the football club, roughly five minutes’ walk from Dunstable Road, free to use on every day except match days and the day before a match.

If you run a business there, loading gets easier on paper: the bay hours run three hours later into the morning, and you get 15 more minutes in them. If you hold a Blue Badge, you get an extra 30 minutes in a disabled bay.

Nothing changes on the street yet. The measures need traffic orders before they can be enforced, which the council’s Principal Solicitor confirmed in the report. No start date has been published. The council recorded no direct financial implications, saying the work will be managed within existing budgets.

Because this is an experimental order, the trial itself is the consultation: objections made during the first six months of an ETRO have to be considered before it can be made permanent. The six-month and 12-month monitoring reports are the points to watch.

Sources

Roadworks and parking changes across the town are tracked on our Luton roadworks and travel page, and planning decisions on our Luton planning news page.