Grass-roots protesters
Sir: In your column 'Spectator's Notebook,' Mr J. W. M. Thompson mentioned Mr Cros- land's civilised action in reopening the inquiry into the siting of London's third airport, owing, as he so aptly put it, to 'the head of steam' generated by the 'grass-roots protesters.'
May I draw your attention to yet another uncivilised action which is being committed at the present moment by the Ministry of Transport? This is the recent confirmation of route of the M25 South Orbital Motorway from Godstone to Leatherhead.
The area of the North Downs from Seven- oaks to Guildford was declared to be 'an area of outstanding natural beauty' by the National Parks Commission in 1958. This would lead the public to assume that this part of the world would be safeguarded from de- velopment and, being within the Green Belt, would render it safe from destruction. Not so! In 1958 the then Minister for Housing and Local Government approved the Surrey De- velopment Plan which included a South Orbital Road (not to motorway standards) very much on the present alignment of the M25. Nothing very much happened until 5 May last year when the Ministry of Transport published an Order under the Highways Act 1959 giving the proposed route of the M25 and asking fin- objections to be lodged by 8 August of the same year. In August 1967 the Ministry announced that a public inquiry would be held in October.
Amongst many others, I objected to the motorway on the grounds of disruption to amenities on Walton Heath, Headley village and the surrounding areas, which are used by a large number of people from south London as a recreational area, the sterilisation of which would certainly ensue if the M25 was built. The Ministry of Transport had been working on the motorway for a number of years but objectors had only five months to prepare their case, which involved calling of witnesses and the preparation of surveys by consulting engineers.
It is a tragedy that the opposition to the M25 was of a fragmentary nature, with in- terested parties trying to push the motorway into someone else's 'back garden,' with the result that the M25 will, unless the public wakes up to what is happening, be built on the line that the Ministry of Transport wants.
M. J. G. Field 107 Surrey Hills, Tadworth, Surrey
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