Leicestershire road safety campaigner says more to be done as new smart motorways scrapped

A road safety campaigner from Leicestershire whose son died on the M6 in 2018 says more needs to be done after the government announced plans to scrap the building of new smart motorways.

Meera Naran, whose work to cut road deaths was acknowledged with an MBE last year, said her campaign would continue.

“I am going to keep continuing to campaign, campaigning for vision 0 which is 0 deaths on our roads.”

Fourteen planned smart motorways – including 11 that are already paused and three earmarked for construction – will be removed from Government road-building plans, given financial pressures and in recognition of the lack of public trust.

The Department for Transport said the construction of these schemes would have cost more than £1 billion. But the department added that the construction of two stretches of smart motorway – including one on the M6 – will continue as they are already more than three-quarters complete.

Existing stretches will remain but be subjected to a safety refit so there are 150 more emergency stopping places across the network.