Campaigners staged a demonstration outside the Department for Transport (DfT) building this week, calling for the release of key reports on the impact of smart motorway schemes.
Organised by Claire Mercer of the Smart Motorways Kill campaign, the event highlighted the DfT's delay in publishing a raft of Post Opening Project Evaluation (POPE) reports on smart motorways.
The POPE studies could provide valuable information on the safety, value for money and environmental impact of these schemes.
According to a 2022 report by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), nine POPE reports were due to be completed that year alone. It is not known how many have been compiled since.
National Highways has suggested that these reports are still undergoing an 'assurance' process - though it would be very rare for such a process to take several years for a POPE study.
Other POPE reports have been published since the last report on a smart motorway was released in 2021. That report focused on the M1 junctions 10 to 13 smart motorway and found that the scheme was projected to cost the economy £200m, compared to a promised £1bn boost.
Sarah Champion, Member of Parliament for Rotherham, who is Ms Mercer's MP, also attended the demonstration.
Ms Mercer's husband, Jason, was killed on a smart motorway section of the M1 in 2019.
Roads minister Simon Littlewood wrote to her stating that the DfT was taking 'the time to fully assure findings' - a process he described as 'ongoing'.
Investigative journalist Chris Ames, who first highlighted the delays in releasing the POPE studies, said: 'People are unlikely to believe that these reports are still undergoing assurance three years on.'
