REMOVING the hard shoulder on the M4 will leave Reading gridlocked according to the town’s transport chief.

Without a hard shoulder any accident will mean two lanes have to be closed, with commuters likely to take to roads running through Reading.

Tony Page, lead member for highways on Reading council said: “We have major concerns, particularly with the complete removal of the hard shoulder.

“As you have seen in the last few months there have been more accidents on the motorway around Reading.

“A minimum of two lanes will be closed for safety reasons while the incident is resolved, reducing the capacity of the motorway by 50 per cent.

“This will cause severe delays on the motorway and traffic will divert onto local roads which, in the case of Reading, will result in gridlock.”

The warning comes after Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling announced the M4, between junction 12 for Theale and junction four of Hayes would be upgraded to a ‘smart motorway’ with four running lanes in each direction and no hard shoulder.

Announcing the scheme, he said: “Local road networks would be likely to benefit from the additional capacity provided by the proposed development.

“There would, at minimum, be an overall minor improvement in the noise environment for the length of the proposed development as a result of the low noise surfacing and the provision of acoustic fencing.”

It will cost £850million to replace bridges and gantries along the road that will need replacing along it’s length.

In June this year the Transport Select Committee argued that the Department for Transport had failed to prove the safety case for smart motorways saying all lane running was too risky because removing hard shoulders and extending the distance between refuge areas was too risky without further safety data.