PLANS have been announced by the Government to “declutter” road signs and make streets safer for cyclists.

To be consulted on, they are designed to make signs clearer and cut their number.

The proposals will cut the number of signs the Department for Transport will need to authorise and streamline the approval process for councils, cutting regulation.

Roads Minister Robert Goodwill said: “The number of signs has soared from two million in 1993 to more than 4.6million today, causing unnecessary clutter in our towns and cities.”

The proposals will also look to relax regulations for parking bays and yellow-box junctions to give councils greater flexibility in designing road layouts and markings.