MT 127/21

Tring (Herts) to Berkhamsted (Herts) Bypass proposals: correspondence with Chiltern Society; controversial scheme; matters of policy concerning use of detrunking orders

Date range	1969-1972
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series MT, subseries MT 127

Context

In the late 1960s, the Ministry of Transport elevated its ambitions for a bypass of the congested A41 between Watford and Aylesbury, and decided to create an entirely off-line improvement that would be a motorway. This new project became the A41(M). This file contains some of the administrative background to that decision, and some of the other troubles the MOT encountered along the way.

Contents of note

• Oblique hints at a future extension of the A41(M) past Aylesbury.
• Discussion around the impact of the Roskill Commission on the A41(M). Roskill was about to publish a report recommending the site for a new third London airport, and his preferred location was Cublington, a village lying between Aylesbury and Leighton Buzzard. The A41(M) had nothing to do with this, but happened to point directly from London towards the proposed airport, and the MOT was concerned that announcing the A41(M) to the press would look like the Government had agreed that an airport would be built at Cublington and was starting to prepare for it. Announcement of the project was delayed because of this.
• Much correspondence from unhappy residents of Tring, Berkhamsted, Northchurch and Wigginton about the new motorway proposed nearby.
• Some administrative difficulty with combining the orders for the new road with detrunking orders for the old.
• The inspector's report from the inquiry into the whole Watford-Tring length.

Links to other files

CP111.6/8 Correspondence and papers concerning the A41M Watford to Tring motorway including plans of proposed route and inspector's report on the public enquiry held at Hemel Hempstead, Nov 1971 - Jan 1972 (1971-1978)

CNT/HH/3/5/RD33(a) Watford - Tring Motorway A41(M) - Plans (undated)

CNT/HH/3/5/RD33(c) Communication Watford - Tring Motorway A41(M) (1955-1982)

People with camera copies

Chris Marshall has a partial copy.