Lincoln MP, Karl McCartney, who is also a member of the Transport Select Committee in the House of Commons, has been a long-term opponent of smart motorways which were introduced by the last Labour Government. Following his continual campaign against them alongside campaigns from motoring organisations and bereaved families, the Government has decided not to build those it had already planned due to financial pressures and a lack of confidence in their safety by the public.
Karl also believes that those that remain in place should be scrapped and that officials from National Highways and civil servants who have continually been pushing for more smart motorways even though there are clear and evident dangers, should be held to account. Up until the announcement at the weekend, officials from National Highways were still defending them at coroners’ inquests, spending money from vehicle taxes in doing so, which should have been dedicated to other road safety measures and fixing potholes.
Karl McCartney MP, said: “I am pleased that the Government has at last come to the common-sense decision to scrap any more plans for these less-than-smart motorways before any more lives are lost and money is spent. We cannot stop there though as we need to urgently review the existing ones.
“I have long campaigned against these motorways, introduced by the Labour Government nearly twenty years ago. Too many people have lost their lives or had their lives badly affected because of associated traffic incidents due to them. It is clear and obvious that if you remove hard shoulders, then it will add extra danger to drivers. Hard shoulders on the current smart motorways should be reinstated before others are involved in serious and further fatal incidents.
“It has always been clear to me that the whole concept is lazy and bean-counting, based on trying to expand motorway capacity without spending any more of the huge amount of money raised by vehicle and fuel taxes. In essence, pound notes have come before people’s safety.
“We also need senior figures at National Highways and in the civil service who have been defending and promoting them to be publicly held to account including for badly advising government ministers. They have been the ones pushing for more with National Highways even speaking at coroners’ inquests to defend them.”
The Government announced at the weekend that it has cancelled plans for new smart motorways which would have consisted of 14 new schemes including 11 that had been paused and three set for construction. Smart motorways are a stretch of road where technology is used to regulate traffic flow and ease congestion. They also use the hard shoulder as an extra lane of traffic, which has led to road deaths.
The Government has said that existing smart motorways - making up 10% of England's motorway network - will remain and undergo a previously announced safety refit to create 150 more emergency stopping places and improved technology.
The Transport Select Committee, of which Karl is a leading member, have been critical of smart motorways including in two hard-hitting reports. As well as families who have lost loved ones on smart motorways, leading motoring organisations like the AA and RAC have opposed them.
The Government’s announcement can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/plans-for-new-smart-motorways-cancelled
