The London Traffic Area was established by the London Traffic Act 1924 to regulate the increasing amount of motor traffic in the London area. The LTA was abolished in 1965 on the establishment of the Greater London Council.
The traffic area extended for about 25 miles (40 kilometres) from Charing Cross in central London, and was thus much larger than the existing County of London or Metropolitan Police District. It included the whole of the County of London and Middlesex, much of Surrey and Hertfordshire, plus parts of Kent, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Essex. At its outer limits it included Harlow, Billericay, Gravesend, Sevenoaks, Reigate, Guildford, Slough, Amersham, Harpenden and Stevenage.
The traffic area was defined by Schedule 1 of the Act as:
The London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee was set up to make recommendations on regulating and controlling motor traffic in the LTA, and presented annual reports to Parliament. The committee's included members appointed by the Ministry of Transport and by the local authorities in the traffic area.
The LTA and the advisory committee were abolished by the London Government Act 1963. From 1965 the Greater London Council exercised the powers over traffic regulation, although its area was much smaller than the traffic area.
Surrey is a ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the west. The largest settlement is Woking.
Reigate and Banstead is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Reigate and the borough also includes the towns of Banstead, Horley and Redhill. Parts of the borough are within the Surrey Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Northern parts of the borough, including Banstead, lie inside the M25 motorway which encircles London.
Mole Valley is a local government district in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Dorking, and the district's other town is Leatherhead. The largest villages are Ashtead, Fetcham and Great Bookham, in the northern third of the district.
Tandridge is a local government district in east Surrey, England. Its council is based in Oxted, although the largest settlement is Caterham; other notable settlements include Warlingham, Godstone and Lingfield. In mid-2019, the district had an estimated population of 88,129.
The A25 road is an east–west main road in the South-East of England. Its carries traffic east from Guildford, Surrey, eastward through Surrey and into mid-west Kent, to the town of Sevenoaks, and then on to Wrotham Heath where it connects with the A20.
The Borough of Guildford is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. With around half of the borough's population, Guildford is its largest settlement and only town, and is where the council is based.
East Surrey is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Claire Coutinho, a Conservative serving as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. The seat covers an affluent area in the English county of Surrey.
Guildford is a constituency in Surrey represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Angela Richardson, a Conservative.
Caterham is a town in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valley but rises to equal heights to the south. The town lies close to the A22, 21 miles from Guildford and 6 miles south of Croydon, in an upper valley cleft into the dip slope of the North Downs. Caterham on the Hill is above the valley to the west.
Coulsdon and Purley Urban District was a local government district in northeast Surrey from 1915 to 1965. The local authority was Coulsdon and Purley Urban District Council. The former area of the district is now mostly part of the London Borough of Croydon in Greater London, with parts in the Tandridge District and the Borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey.
The Diocese of Guildford is a Church of England diocese covering eight and half of the eleven districts in Surrey, much of north-east Hampshire and a parish in Greater London. The cathedral is Guildford Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Guildford. Of the two provinces of the church, it is in the Province of Canterbury.
Dorking was a parliamentary constituency centred on the towns of Dorking and Horley in Surrey. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 – 1983. In the eight elections during its 33-year lifetime it was held by three Conservatives successively.
West Surrey was a parliamentary constituency in the county of Surrey, which returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.
Holmesdale, also known as the Vale of Holmesdale, is a valley in South-East England that falls between the hill ranges of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge of the Weald, in the counties of Kent and Surrey. It stretches from Folkestone on the Kent coast, through Ashford, Harrietsham, Maidstone, Riverhead/Sevenoaks, Westerham, Oxted, Godstone, Redhill, Reigate, Dorking, Gomshall, and Guildford – west of which it is also called by the local name of "Puttenham Vale" – as it continues through the village of Puttenham, to the market town of Farnham.
Godstone Rural District was a rural district in Surrey, England from 1894 to 1974, covering an area in the south-east of the county.