Concern over 'inappropriate' road signs

New road signs on the M1 through Bedfordshire have been causing controversy. As part of the transformation programme on both carriageways, Junctions 10 and 11 have been given new names.

Signs for Junction 11 have recently been replaced with signs for Luton Central, and Junction 10 is known as Luton South.

However, Luton Central is actually further away from the centre of town. Graham Smith from TrafficMaster told us: "Well the names they have chosen, particularly for Junction 11 as Luton Central, is particularly inappropriate."

The traffic expert lives near Junction 11 - Luton Central. He's one of many local residents concerned about an increase in traffic: "I think advertising Junction 11 as Luton Central will encourage a lot more people to use that route if they're intending to go into the centre of Luton and is therefore likely to add to traffic in the Dunstable Road area and on the Hatters Way section of road."

The Highways Agency told us: "The only change that has been made to the signs is that at J11 it now includes a bracketed c, to indicate central.

"This is to help people make the right decision about which junction to use, and the wording was agreed with local authorities. These signs are all part of the M1 J10 to J13 managed motorway scheme, which started in December 2009, to improve capacity, reduce congestion and improve safety."

Anglia Tonight has compared journey times between each junction and the centre of Luton. Our journey from Junction 11 - now Luton Central - took 12 minutes, 13 seconds. We then travelled between Junction 10 - Luton South - and the centre of town which took half that time: 5 minutes, 54 seconds.