MP names ‘dangerous’ motorway feature that needs to be scrapped …

A stretch of smart motorway only recently opened at a cost of up to £330 million must be scrapped and returned to how it previously operated, according to an MP who insists it is unsafe for drivers. All new smart motorways have been cancelled amid safety fears but those already up and running will continue to operate.

They have proved to be hugely controversial as they have resulted in the removal of hard shoulders in many areas, potentially leaving stricken vehicles with no place of safety. Smart motorways have been linked to 79 deaths ^[1] across the country, campaigners say.

A new stretch was fully opened on the M6 between Stafford ^[2] and Stoke last year after four years of roadworks misery for motorists. Stafford MP Theo Clarke says the hugely expensive project should not have gone ahead at all and be reverted to how it previously was.

A smart motorway also operates on the M6 around Birmingham and the Black Country ^[4]. Ms Clarke said she would fight to ditch existing smart motorways in the region and return hard shoulders on stretches where they have been removed.

Hard shoulders were turned into live running lanes on many smart motorways in a bid to keep more traffic running and ease congestion. But a number of frightening crashes, including fatalities, prompted criticism from coroners that drivers weren't safe as there was no easy way of escape should they get into trouble.

Motoring organisation the AA has also called for all existing smart motorways, including on sections of the M6, M5 and M42, to be scrapped and believes they are not safe. Those who have died on smart motorways include eight-year-old Dev Naran, who was tragically killed ^[5] on the M6 near Birmingham when his grandad's stationary car was struck by a lorry on the hard shoulder.

Dev Naran with his mother Meera. (Image: PA)

Conservative MP Ms Clarke said: "I am really pleased that the rollout of smart motorways has been stopped by the Government. I have always opposed the M6 stretch into Stafford from Birmingham on safety grounds.

"The next step is to push Department for Transport to reinstall the hard shoulder on this stretch of the M6 and I will be requesting an urgent meeting with the Secretary of State to make that case. There are 375 miles of smart motorway and 235 miles have no hard shoulder which remains a huge concern to my Stafford constituents."

The 'unsafe' drivers who were still on the road after having their licences taken away ^[6]

Huge rise in drivers punished since new law banning touching phones at the wheel ^[7]

Stretch of motorway used every day by thousands 'among slowest in country'^[8]

Is there a God? Less of us think so as religious views in decline ^[9]

The area of the West Midlands where highest number of families forced to use food banks ^[10]