Richard Holden MP
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road
London SW1P 4DR April 18th, 2023
By Email: richard.holden@dft.gov.uk
CANCELLATION OF ALL PLANNED SMART MOTORWAYS
Dear Mr Holden
As a long time, campaigner against dangerous ALL LANE RUNNING smart motorways I welcome the government’s decision to cancel all planned new projects but I am concerned that projects under construction will be completed without hard shoulders.
During the Conservative Party Leadership Campaign the Prime Minister stated, Smart Motorways are unpopular because they are unsafe’. He pledged to scrap them and has delivered on the promise.
Before work recommences, I would respectfully suggest the Department for Transport and National Highways seek advice from the government’s legal department as regards liability in respect of future deaths and life changing injuries, in which the absence of a hard shoulder has been judged to be the major contributory cause.
Completing schemes without hard shoulders in the knowledge they are unsafe is unacceptable.
Yours sincerely
Mike Rawson
(Ret Met Police Traffic Sergeant)
www.smartmotorwayskill.co.uk