Primary Destinations

Primary Destinations are the key target destinations (technically, "places of major traffic importance") within the United Kingdom that are shown on direction signs along major roads such as Motorways and Primary Routes. These destinations are important key points and are used in combination with local place names that are defined by each local Highway Authority. Primary destinations will appear above local destinations on direction signs due to a furthest first rule in the design guidance and will generally appear a closest first on route confirmatory signs.

Primary Destinations are usually important towns or cities within their areas, but some Primary Destinations (such as Brownhills or Llangurig) are relatively small towns that are located at or near an important junction. Indeed, some such as Scotch Corner refer to junctions rather than a town, whilst others (such as Erskine Bridge) refer to important river crossings. Important ports and airports are also used as Primary Destinations.

The concept of Primary Destinations was introduced in the mid-1960s in the Worboys report.

Regional Destinations

For the purposes of the long-distance directional signing of the British road network, the Department for Transport (DfT) authorizes the use of a limited number of Regional Destinations. These destinations, which are distinguished by the use of upper-case lettering are:

NORTH WALES
SCOTLAND
SOUTH WALES
The LAKES
The EAST
The MIDLANDS (also shown as: CANOLBARTH LLOEGR in Wales)
The NORTH
The NORTH EAST
The NORTH WEST
The SOUTH
The SOUTH WEST
The WEST

Within England, The NORTH WEST is to the west of the Pennines and The NORTH is to the east of the Pennines. Generally, The NORTH is preferred to The NORTH EAST, which is usually only used where both The NORTH and The NORTH WEST would appear on a single sign.

The NORTH and The SOUTH are used to refer to the relevant areas of both England and Scotland.

Inconsistencies

Whilst the above list contains all the official regional destinations, several more are actually used on signage. They are:

LONDON
Mid WALES (on roads such as M54 and A458)
ENGLAND (on A74(M) immediately to the north of the border)

In addition to these three, The BRIDGE with upper-case lettering of the second word in the style of regional destination appears on the approaches to the Runcorn – Widnes Bridge.

Changes to Primary Destinations

Primary Destinations were first introduced in 1964, and have been regularly revised since then.

The most recent list across Great Britain is known as LTN 1/94, which was published in 1994. Since this date, responsibility for Scotland and Wales has passed from the DfT to the relevant devolved administration.

England

The current list for England is based upon a list published by the DfT on 18th December 2009, with changes as detailed below.

Changes up to LTN 1/94

Added: Alton

Removed: Bishops Stortford

Wellington (Shropshire)

Note: Bishops Stortford was added in c.1985, and removed again by 1994.

2009

December 2009 saw large changes to the Primary Destinations list, with the following changes:

Added: Altrincham

Removed: Alton

2011

In 2011, Road Classification was handed to Highway Authorities, with the DfT just being oversight for the process. Requests for new primary destinations were consulted on, and seven new Primary Destinations were added:

Added: Birmingham Airport

Colne

East Midlands Airport

Removed: Stone

Proposed but rejected: Bishops Stortford

Bristol International Airport

Callington

Cambourne/Pool/Redruth (as a single destination)

Daventry Rail Freight Terminal

Dearne Valley

Leeds Bradford Airport

Liverpool John Lennon Airport

London Gateway Port

Looe

Lytham St Annes

National Exhibition Centre

St Ives (Cornwall)

Wellington (Somerset)

Winsford ([http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/road-network-policy-consultation-response/response.pdf list of proposals and reasons for rejections from page 10 onwards)

The five airports and ports added were suggested by the DfT, whilst Colne and Minehead were requested by the relevant Highway Authority. There was a request for Marlborough to be removed, but this was rejected by the DfT.

2012

In 2012, a revised list of primary destinations was produced, adding the seven new destinations from 2011 to the 2009 list, plus making the following changes:

Added: Stone

Northwich

Removed: Tilbury

Scotland and Wales

Scotland - Using LTN 1/94, plus assumed changes as indicated by direction signs and maps
Wales - Using LTN 1/94, plus assumed changes as indicated by direction signs and maps

At the time of writing, no official lists post-1994 are seemingly available for either Scotland or Wales.