It’s the country’s busiest road. Of all UK motorway traffic, 15 per cent is on the M25 circling London. It became infamous for almost constant traffic jams. But today something more unusual was happening – the first ever planned daytime shutdown since it opened in 1986, for upgrading works.

Passing through six counties, the M25 has been used by hundreds of thousands of cars a day to circumnavigate the capital.

It normally provides a vital link for many air passengers travelling to Heathrow or Gatwick.

But this weekend, the closure of the five-mile section in Surrey, would mean a very long drive the other way round.