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152 
WESTM NSTER HAUL
Page 7
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ALL THAT was missing was the gentle twittering of birds in the background. There were deer and badgers, trees and tadpoles, rippling waters and cricket. . it was a delightful sylvan scene as MPs wandered in spirit through the woods.
Just one jarring note — unheard, but due to start up one day, was the roar of heavy goods vehicles rushing through, disturbing animal and man alike.
The House of Commons was discussing the plan to drive the M25, the Government's top priority motorway, through part of Epping Forest.
MP after MP recalled with affection the hours they had spent in those peaceful glades, from Miss Jo Rochardson, who knows some of its beauty spots very well, to Bryan Magee, who cannot remember a time before he was taken there by his parents.
For once the parties were united.
There was general regret at the plan but expectations — or hopes? — were that the best will be made of a bad job.
How the frogs and the fishes will be affected was not revealed; some trees will obviously have to go; but there will be tunnels for badgers and deer to cross under the road . . . Peter Brooke, dis playing an admirable knowledge of natural history, revealed that deer, like elephants, are creatures of habit over their routes.
John Horam, the junior Transport Minister was all understanding about the anxieties over what he called "part of our national heritage."
But, he pointed out, the M25 would pass just through the northern tip of the forest, and at the one 500-yard stretch where it actually went through the trees, would go underground. Out of 6,000 acres of forest, the department would get only 14% acres, and once the road had been built, 111/2 of those would be open to the public. What was more, the Ministry intended to buy 141/2 acres to make up for the land it would take.
As for cricket — the local club play where the tunnel will be built, and until the restored land is handed back, together with a new pavilion, they will be a wandering team.
Just one word of warning to them. They should resist any temptations to change their name temporarily from Epping Foresters Cricket Club to something like I Zingari the Second. One MP recalled that history showed locals did not exactly like gipsies.