Page 13 - The Kettle April 2012

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City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com

Mr. Formby took the tortoise to an animal rescue

centre where it was found to have an American

microchip and was thus nicknamed Freeway.

The Communications Act of 2003 uses the M25

as the boundary of the London area in stipulating

that a proportion of television programmes must

be made outside the London area. Which is why

in the past two years alone the BBC has spent £11

million ferrying staff out of London and putting

them up in hotels! Outside the M25 house prices

drop by between 20% and 40% (poor old North

Ockendon – so near and yet..).

Today the motorway has two control centres.

Godstone watches over Dartford to Heathrow

and South Mimms takes over from Heathrow to

Thurrock. That is of course in addition to the six

different police forces that co-operate on managing

the traffic. They are the Met, Thames Valley, Kent,

Essex, Surrey and Hertfordshire forces. Oh, and

before you finally nod off, it has 10,606 lights and

2,959 illuminated signs along its length. And it’s

not the first motorway to see guided tours: London

Transport ran red Routemaster tours on our first

motorway the M1 when it opened in 1959.

So the M25. Is it really all that interesting?

Like they say, perhaps you’ve got to be there.

Do feel free to read aloud gems from this article

to your group next time you are savouring the

asphalty delights of the M25 because here at City

& Village Tours we are not going to be offering

M25 tours anytime soon.

However the four-hour M25 coach tour from

Brighton & Hove Bus & Coach Company is

available on 9 May and 11 October 2012.

Oh and just in case you think “what’s the point now

– you’ve ruined all the surprises”, fear not because

to ratchet up the excitement you’ll not know until

you join the motorway at Junction 7 whether you’ll

be travelling clockwise or anti-clockwise. Genius!

Tickets cost £15.00 per person. Call them on

01273 886200 or see the Brighton & Hove Bus

& Coach Company website at