MT 110/88

Long term projects: South Orbital Road and London-Crawley Motorway; Surrey 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 contents of this file actually start in 1964. It is a record of correspondence between the MOT, Surrey County Council and many residents of rural Surrey regarding the South Orbital Road, which was eventually built as the M25, though at this time it was not yet planned to be a motorway. There are also some press cuttings here about how Ernest Marples, then the minister, failed to promise them a motorway soon enough or in definite enough terms or far enough away from their houses to satisfy them.

Half the letters in this file are headed "A25 Villages Association". The rest are replies to them. The replies all basically say the same thing:

Dear Irritated Surrey Resident,

Yes, the A25 is very busy. Yes, we will build the South Orbital Road. No, we cannot promise to have it finished in its entirety yesterday. Yes, building it will mean putting a new road through some of your lovely countryside. No, it will not be silent or invisible to the naked eye.

Yours,

Weary Civil Servant

My notes summarise this file as "absolute bona fide grade A bobbins".

People with camera copies

None known.