MT 127/86

M16 (Epping) Public Inquiry: draft policy statement; official and departmental correspondence; notes of meeting

Date range	1974-1975
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series MT, subseries MT 127

Context

The public inquiry that was held into what was then the M16, part of Ringway 3, and what is now the M25 between the A10 and A12, was an acrimonious affair. The papers here describe the inquiry day by day. It's of particular interest because the motorway was a part of Ringway 3, but it was also one of the first to have its inquiry deliberately disrupted by anti-roads groups who were seeking to derail the whole process.

As well as descriptions of the various tactics that protestors were using, there's evidence here that anti-roads groups from across the country had lodged objections and declared their intention to attend, as well as an awful lot of discussion about a legal challenge made by one man who considered the whole process illegal. His angle, it is claimed here, is that the loss of farmland would lead to economic ruin.

The short version is that the inquiry was disrupted by many protestors, the DoE was very worried about it, and produced their own legal mumbo-jumbo to counteract the legal mumbo-jumbo they had thrown at them, and the motorway was built anyway, because in those days they always were.

People with camera copies

Chris Marshall has a partial copy.