I fought against this heavily four years ago. The policy was instituted by Richard Brunstrom when he was ACPO head of road policing. If any death occurs the road is declared a crime scene in order to allocate blame and achieve ‘closure’ for relatives and insurers. The crass stupidity is that the crash investigators on the scene are often no more than ordinary patrol officers. On 30th June the A30 was closed between Sunningdale and J13 of the M25. Traffic was backed up to J6 of the M4. It is patently ridiculous that major routes are cut off in this way. Happens in no other country in the world. But we have new government now and common sense is creeping back. About 17 miles of M1 near Nottingham had remained 50 limit for many weeks after the road improvements were completed, awaiting some minor work on the variable speed limit gantries. Complaints from the public brought a lifting of the limit on 21st May.