M25 roadworks - get a grip

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I'm sorry but anyone who lives or works outside of the "golden sphere" that is the M25 has had to deal with road/motorway closures and sudden changes in route/planning for decades.

Why do we have to be subjected to this as "national news"?

FFS they close motorways every weekend in North West, Yorkshire, Midlands, Wales, Scotland and elsewhere on a regular basis.

I bow down to you as you must be more organised than me if when you are going away for the weekend you would have checked in advance for road closures that would have the potential to add three hours to your journey. I can safely say that I could easily be caught out and as someone who lives in the south east but not on the door step of the roadworks, would be grateful for the heads up on the news.

I must be spoilt by the one bus service leaving my small town (with one supermarket and a few take aways so really very small ) to take me to the surrounding villages. 🙄

It simply does not need to be on national
news. People can check national highways, travel FB groups, traffic England, local news …. the list is endless and what most of us do when travelling to airports or somewhere important regularly.

OK...so you are fine with it being on all of those places but not on the national news so that more people who might use the stretch of the road on an infrequent basis but more substantial journeys might see it?

The M25 is not like other motorways. You just need to accept it. It's not a Londoncentric thing. It just is what it is.

Yes, I thought that as well. I rolled my eyes at the news, I have to admit - not remotely of interest or relevance to many millions of us who live far away from the M25. Local news - yes, of course, but not worthy of national news.

Yep,there is no need for the hysteria and it just indicates how SE focused as a country we are .

Exactly @Orangesandsatsumas - it affects people traveling from lots of the UK and internationally. It's a transport hub not just a 'local route for local people'.

At least being on the national news, it gives people more time to prepare or avoid.

So the objection is that you think it's just a SE vs rest of UK thing.

Fine, you aren't going to look at the evidence for why it matters to more people than just the residents of the SE.

You've made up your mind based on your prejudice

But so are routes around other major airports eg Manchester. It is totally south-east centric to give this such prominence.

Actually quite a lot of places in Surrey are not well served by public transport, and there are plenty of rural and one track, unlit roads round here that are dangerous to walk or cycle down.

The new junction infrastructure is needed afaik because a large housing estate is to be built there.

We are losing land to development at an exponential rate. Seems to be one of the few industries that's growing.

Fwiw the north and south circular routes were inadequate even before the M25.
Of course the M25 is cursed by being the shape of the sigil odegra 😁

But there just isn't any hysteria, at least not that I've seen. May I ask which news report was creating hysteria? There's news reports to inform people and make their lives easier (national news reports so people know who are outside of the immediate area), which is what news is there to do.

Yes, yes re the M6 which we have to check ahead for. It’s in an absolute state with shit facilities along it too. Where is the hysteria about the frequent inconvenience with that?

Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the whole world and the busiest in Britain. You also have the eurotunnel, Eurostar and the major ferry routes off M25 arms.

I get all the annoyance about the London/ SE centricity of this country - but I disagree on this particular issue just being part of that

“M25 closures: Fears of gridlock as motorway closed”

BBC,3rd story down.

Not necessary.

I live in Byfleet and at the moment it’s very quiet and looks like the message has got around for everyone that can avoid the area has, so far, but I expect later in the morning traffic is going to increase massively with lorries, vans etc. We had an overnight closure last month to replace one footbridge, but I believe this footbridge is much larger. One down, another 5 weekend closures to go.

Are you tempted to go for a drive and see?

Admittedly I don't know how the roads around Manchester Airport compare to the stretch of road in question, or how many flights per day/passengers it typically serves in comparison to the two big London airports. Last time I worked around that area was a long time ago now. I do know a lot of family tend to travel south from Scotland to use it for international flights so imagine it could be similar. If it is similar and there was a road closure lasting an entire weekend on the major road serving the airport then it seems sensible it would be on the news to to inform those who are using it.

I wouldn't describe this as hysteria. I would receive it as a headline informing people about the situation.

I’m not seeing any hysteria…just sensible warnings to avoid the area.

Not a footbridge. Have you been by the Wisley interchange lately?

Well we obviously view hysteria differently.

£317 million they’re spending on that area whilst the rest of us get nothing done about our roads. Appreciate the unfair funding your area gets which also happens in education and suck up a bit of inconvenience.

Being stuck in roadworks doesn’t need words such as “ gridlock” or “fear” to describe it or to be the 3rd story on the national news site.

We wouldn't have seen it if it wasn't in the national news, but need to know for avoiding the A3 today as otherwise would have assumed it was clear because it isn't closed. Family travelling this weekend from Kent and Sussex also need to replan routes to avoid the open stretch of M25 and the A3. If you don't know the area, then fair enough that you don't understand the huge impact.

Cara Delavigne's house in LA burning down is of no relevance nor interest to me, yet is also on the national news. I presume enough people are thought to care for it to be included, it doesn't make me start moaning that there wasn't a national news article when I burnt the toast. Just worth accepting that the proportion of people interested are sufficient to make it national news.

Agreed - this is not “hysteria” ..!

The person who said it was hysteria is misusing the word to try and trivialise what is about to inevitably happen this weekend.

People do this a lot on Mumsnet. Someone, somewhere calmly and rationally posts, saying they’re about to have a real significant problem.

It’s just a matter of time then before another poster comes along saying “calm down” despite most of the rest of MN saying the person was rational and calm in their OP.

It is designed to belittle and reduce other people and problems.

There will be road chaos this weekend. The BBC are covering it because it will affect the road routes to our two major national airports and a significant chunk of corridors around the south west London area.

The UK is set up the way it is - those airports lie between junctions 7 and 14 of the M25.

The road works are happening to the section which is bang slap in between those junctions. Thousands of people taking flights will be affected.

and you think this isn’t national news worthy?!! Give me a break.

It's the main motorway for Heathrow, Gatwick, London, Surrey. I use the M25 weekly even without bits closed it's horrendous. I can't imagine the small towns and villages like West Byfleet are going to be able to cope with the extra cars.

I know when the M4 has been closed the roads around it can't cope and that wasn't connecting airports.