This week’s decision by Grant Shapps, as Secretary of  State for Transport to review the implementation of Smart Motorways comes following growing criticism and concerns about road safety.

One aspect that has provoked controversy is the opening up of the ‘hard shoulder’ at times of heavy traffic with the problem that vehicles that break down have to use special SOS lay-bys. Failure to find such refuges mean stopping in a lane still used by heavy and fast traffic. Road safety campaigners claim that people have died and the Transport Select Committee has argued that the promised Stopped Vehicle Detection system was not yet operational in enough of the smart motorways. The distance between the lay-bys is therefore crucial.

On Radio 4’s PM programme, a RAC spokesman alleged that Highways England had increased the distance between the SOS refuge areas without consultation. Apparently, each one costs £1m to build and the distances between them can vary between half a mile and two miles. At present Highways England engages the public on each and every project in the form of a consultation on the relevant statutory instrument. They receive very few responses – hardly surprising because they cannot easily be located on the Highways England website (one of the few public bodies without a dedicated ‘consultations’ page) and consultees would probably be unaware if the proposed distances between SOS sites are longer or shorter than elsewhere.

After denying that there has been a problem, Highways England appears now to have offered a response, and the Government review will surely help. But it is hard to escape the conclusion that a lack of consultation about the overall strategy for smart motorways lies at the heart of the current problems.

The Campaign for Better Transport and others want to halt the programme but that is unlikely. Public pressure is, however a factor and a Twitter survey (hardly the best form of consultation, admittedly) by Road Safety GB found 53% of respondents unconvinced that smart motorways were safe. Publicity campaigns are already planned, but it sounds as if a more systematic consultation is now required to engage the public more seriously in an issue that affects far more people than the myriad policies upon which we are all routinely consulted.

There will surely be much more on this subject.