Tuesday, 18 January 2022 20:01

In his latest column, High Peak MP Robert Largan discusses his role as part of the Transport Select Committee in the pausing of the smart motorway rollout.

As part of my role on the Transport Select Committee, I recently contributed to a critical report on the rollout and safety of smart motorways.

There have been lots of concerns about these ‘smart’ motorways, particularly the removal of the traditional hard-shoulder. A previous select committee inquiry in 2016 raised concerns about the design and implementation of smart motorways too.

Given huge sums of taxpayers’ money is being spent on rolling out these smart motorways, we on the Transport Select Committee believed it was vital to take another look at the evidence.

We carried out a follow-up inquiry into smart motorways, taking a wide variety of evidence from expert witnesses and rigorously scrutinising both the Department for Transport and Highways England.

To put it simply, our inquiry found that there simply isn’t enough data to justify continuing with the roll-out until we know more about both the safety and economic impact of existing smart motorways.

Therefore, in our report we recommended that the Government should pause the rollout of new all-lane running smart motorways, so that more safety and economic data can be collected and independently evaluated.

I am really pleased that Ministers have now accepted all our recommendations and announced that they will immediately pause the rollout of all-lane running smart motorway schemes. In a £390 million retrofit programme, additional emergency refuge areas and Stopped Vehicle Detection will also be installed on new and existing smart motorways.

I think this is a really positive step forward that demonstrates the importance of the work of Select Committees scrutinising public policy. It also shows the importance of MPs from different political parties working together to get things done, something I have repeatedly tried to do since getting elected.

This is also a good example of more evidence-based policy making, looking at the facts and focusing on what works rather than obsessing over rigid ideologies or outdated political dogma.

I also know that many drivers across the High Peak and the country will welcome this announcement.

Whatever else might be happening in politics at the moment, I’m continuing to get things done for the High Peak, making the case for more investment in our area and for more sensible, evidence-based policy decisions.