'I feared for my life after breaking down on Smart Motorway' says Milton Keynes dignitary

A former councillor who is a city Alderman has told of his sheer terror after his car broke down on the new Smart Motorway.

Paul Bartlett, who served as a Conservative for years on MK Council, is calling for urgent safety improvement to the multi-million pound stretch between junctions 13 and 16.

He was driving back to his Milton Keynes home from work on Sunday when his car suddenly broke down just north of Northampton.

"My car lost all power...There was nowhere to go other than up against a crash barrier as there was no hard shoulder or emergency layby,” he said.

The new high-tech motorways use the hard shoulder as a running lane and have variable speed limits to control traffic flow.

Paul quickly put his hazard lights on but watched in horror as vehicles and lorries raced towards his stranded car.

"Quickly, I got out, jumping over the crash barrier to relative safety. I was shaking and I couldn't look at my car for fear of seeing something crash into it at speed,” he said.

"Hundreds of vehicles had to swerve around it.”

Northamptonshire Police arrived in two unmarked cars and formed a protective barrier around Paul and his vehicle.

"As one officer fixed a rope to my car, I looked on anxiously fearing that, despite the flashing of blue lights, he was not in a safe place,” he said.

The car was finally towed to safety and Paul breathed a sigh of relief that nobody was hurt.

"My simple breakdown could have lead to death and serious injury....Smart Motorways simply have to go – it's just not worth it".

Last April, just months after MK’s multi-million pound stretch of Smart motorway was finished, the Prime Minister announced that all future schemes would be scrapped due to safety and cost concerns.

Some 14 projects were abandoned, but the government decided that removing existing sections would be too disruptive and expensive. Instead, safety improvement work would be carried out - including building frequent emergency stopping places to make up for the lack of hard shoulder, they said.

The local Smart scheme cost around £300m and took four years to build.