The controversial plan for bus lanes in New Bedford Road and Old Bedford Road, Luton, has been scrapped by Luton Council.

When the scheme was announced it resulted in massive protests from local residents. Now Liberal Democrat councillors for the area, David Chapman and Martin Pantling, say the plan was totally unnecessary.

"The whole plan was dangerous with traffic lanes so narrow they only just met the government absolute minimum standards," said Cllr Chapman.

"Using this the busy road would have become a seriously risky business for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

'With only a tiny number of buses using the road to get into the town centre in the morning rush hour the bus lane could never have offered any real benefit. The big hold-up is at the town centre end of Old Bedford Road anyway, so all this scheme could have done was to get one or two buses into the traffic jam a few seconds earlier.'

The detailed scheme was devised by the previous Labour administration at the Town Hall.

"It was a pointless plan from the start," said Cllr Pantling.

"It was potentially dangerous and offered no advantage to anybody."