Dunstable Looks Towards 2000

Beds County Planners look to the future with the solution of a modern pedestrianised shopping precinct for the problem of overbearing town centre traffic on Dunstable shoppers.

Reaching the mid-sixties, with the increasing popularity of the motor car, solutions to the problem of heavy traffic is on the agenda of County Planners nationwide. For Beds County, the problem is bitter-sweet since the motor vehicle industry is the life-blood of Dunstable, providing work for 40% of its inhabitants. Narrator Michael Aspel talks us through the issue, and the modern solution of a pedestrian-only shopping precinct that neighbouring towns have adopted.

In 1965, 2000 vehicles per peak hour travelled on the Icknield Way A505, and although 1959 saw the completion of the M1 motorway, the problem of heavy traffic through Dunstable was not alleviated. Beds County Planning Department mull over the problem and possible solutions in this sponsored film which had a hire charge per day of £1 10s. 0d. for those who wanted to screen it.