MT 110/87

Long term projects: South Orbital Road; Kent County Council (CC) correspondence

Date range	1963-1965
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series MT, subseries MT 110

This file is a waste of time. You are advised to avoid it like the plague. Its file title sounds rather interesting but it may contain only dull papers that fail to illuminate the subject matter or it may not even be related to the subject suggested by the title.

Context

The South Orbital Road is what became today's M25 and M26 south of the Thames, but the early dates on this file - 1963 to 1965 - ought to ring warning bells. The whole of this file is actually about an iteration of the South Orbital Route plan from a time when the "D" Ring was not expected to form a full circuit of London, and at that time the Dartford Tunnel would instead be part of the North and South Orbitals. Accordingly, this file refers to a projected section of South Orbital from the Dartford Tunnel, through Kent on roughly the line of the modern M25 between junctions 2 and 4, and then west to Chelsfield to meet the A21. Not all of this road was built, and none of it was built as the South Orbital.

If you haven't already lost interest, reading this file will guarantee you have no interest left. Most of the file is made up of correspondence between residents in Chelsfield, who did not want the South Orbital passing through, and the Ministry, who did. All of this correspondence went via Kent County Council, whose contribution was to add an extra layer of bureaucracy to proceedings. The whole thing is very tiresome, especially considering that most of these people were complaining about a road that was not actually built.

As a result, it is hard to find any way to describe this file as a whole without reaching for phrases like "a right load of old".

People with camera copies

None known.