by 1972 the southern section of ringway 2 had been dropped from the plan, with an alternative proposal that the m23 continue further into london to end on ringway 1. this was immediately countered in the same year by the glc, who announced they would not be building that ringway, which meant that had the m23 continued north into inner london it would not have had the motorway required at its northern end to distribute traffic to the east and west. the m23 plan was gradually scaled back further to omit the section across mitcham common and end the motorway at an unsuitable location on croydon road (a232) before the plan was postponed indefinitely. by the late 1970s, the area along the proposed line of the motorway had become affected by blight, and while the proposals were finally dropped in the mid-1980s, much of the land reserved for the route was not released by the department for transport until the mid-1990s.