HLG 159/2673

Greater London Council: cost comparisons of primary road network; tables

Date range	1972
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series HLG, subseries HLG 159

This file is truly delightful. It is likely to bring a smile to your face, probably because it contains the sort of thing that makes trawling through dusty archive documents worthwhile. The thing in this file that makes your day might actually have nothing to do with its subject matter.

Context

Towards the end of the GLDP Inquiry, the panel were beginning to form their own opinions about the shape that a road network might acceptably take across London, and were looking for information on which to base their recommendations. They seem to have found the GLC's own costings for the road schemes to be lacking, and were unwilling to accept the Council's word when it told them that a given road scheme would cost a certain amount of money.

As a result, they requested, in some considerable detail, a list of costings for virtually everything in the Ringway network, broken down to show individual lengths of road, cost of interchanges, an audit of the lengths of tunnel required and their costs, the estimates for property acquisition, the number of people to be rehomed - everything - broken down and given in 1970 and 1972 prices.

The result is a table, covering about seven sheets of A3 paper, that gives a full and accurate costing for the entire Ringway project, including the Ministry of Transport's sections, free of the vague numbers that the GLC preferred to spout when left to work to its own terms.

This is, in short, gold dust and if I could put it in the "Delightful" category twice, I would.

People with camera copies

Chris Marshall has a complete copy and is thrilled with it.