MT 106/118

Highway projects: Ringway 3(M16); Yeading to South Mimms

Date range	1959-1964
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series MT, subseries MT 106

Context

Ringway 3 - which, for most of this file, is referred to as the good old fashioned D-Ring - was a tricky business in north west London. This file deals with it before it became a motorway and most of it consists of correspondence trying to find a solution to the problem. It doesn't, therefore, tell us much about Ringway 3 itself because none of the line of that route is here. It's too early for that. It does tell us why there was so much trouble in this part of the world, though, which is just as good.

It seems that the line of the D-Ring was protected from the 1930s until the 1950s, when the County scheme was transferred to the Ministry and the MoT continued protecting the line of the road. Then the Ministry for Housing went and made a mess by unilaterally building a big new housing estate on top of the line somewhere near Northolt, screwing up the MoT's plans good and proper.

What followed was a messy business where Harold Watkinson, the Transport and Civil Aviation Minister at the time of this débacle, had little choice but to reroute the proposed D-Ring onto existing roads to get around the blockage, and in doing so inflicted a great deal of planning blight on the poor souls who lived on those now-to-be-widened roads.

Contents of note

• Local protest group's proposal, which is actually quite good, and was seriously considered by the Ministry.

People with camera copies

Chris Marshall has a partial copy.