Tory Party chairman Greg Hands says there are no plans to reverse current smart motorways as the Government scraps all plans for new ones.
The Government on Saturday confirmed that 14 smart motorways will be removed from road-building plans due to “financial pressures” and a lack of “public confidence” felt by drivers.
i first revealed two weeks ago that no new smart motorways were to be built as part of the £3bn project – meaning that remaining plans for roads in Greater Manchester, the Pennines and London had been shelved.
Smart motorways have no hard shoulder and rely on technology to detect broken-down vehicles and close affected lanes.
But Tory Chairman Greg Hands said there aren’t any plans to reverse the existing smart motorways.
“We will keep watching the situation, but there are not current plans to reverse those that are in place, this is an announcement to suspend new smart motorways,” Mr Hands told Times Radio on Sunday
He said the motorways were being ditched as a result of “public concern”. He said: “What we have done is we’ve suspended new smart motorways coming in, and we will continue to monitor the smart motorways that are already in place.”
The AA has also called for the Government to abolish smart motorways and “urgently reinstate” the hard shoulder on current sections.
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