STONEHENGE/A303/A344 (From Business in Dorset)

STONEHENGE/A303/A344

5:50pm Monday 21st July 2008

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THE Highways Agency must not be allowed to treat Stonehenge as an obstacle to plans for a motorway style link from London to Penzance.

The "national disgrace" of indecision over Stonehenge a major tourist attraction, with decades of argument and millions spent - traffic-choked roads which strangle the world heritage site and a visitor centre that makes the site a joke must come to an end.

Lord Bruce-Lockhart, chairman of English Heritage, said: "Stonehenge is the greatest achievement of prehistoric culture anywhere in Europe.” It is inconceivable that the inadequacies of the site should be allowed to continue any longer. Mike Pitts, an archaeologist who has excavated at Stonehenge, and written about the site, said: cancellation of the road scheme “is terrible news. In the wake of winning the London bid for the Olympics, it hardly encourages belief in the government's support for grand projects."

A master plan vision that meant Stonehenge and its surrounding landscape would not be cut through by busy roads with all the noise, visual and air pollution of 21st century travel, by a road tunnel was approved by informed consensus in 1995, including English Heritage and the National Trust. However the tunnel for a 1.3 mile (2.1km) section of the A303, although technically feasible was rejected by the government as unaffordable as estimated costs grew to £540m.

Background
The A303 is one of the main routes from London to the South West of England. Sections have been upgraded to dual carriageway status, though sections of the route remain single carriageway. Traffic flows on the A303 between Amesbury and Winterbourne Stoke (the section including Stonehenge) are above the capacity of the road and the Highways Agency expressed concern about safety on this road and the A344. The two roads currently pass through Stonehenge and land owned by the National Trust with the A303 passing directly south and the A344 directly to the north with a pedestrian tunnel passing from the Stonehenge visitor centre to the site underneath this road. As part of the development of the proposals, over 50 routes were considered by the Highways Agency. In 2004 a public enquiry required under the Highways Act 1980 was conducted by a planning inspector, Michael Ellison. His enquiry agreed that the government proposals were adequate. On December 6 2007 Roads Minister Tom Harris announced that the whole scheme had been cancelled due to increased costs.

The Highways Agency statement said they will continue to work on small scale improvements to the A303.

Everyone agrees "Stonehenge is much more than the stones alone and as a designated World heritage Site the whole area is a remarkable complex of ancient remains which deserves the strongest protection. Experts believe the famous stones, which receive about one million visitors a year, were erected 5,000 years ago. The stones carry deep mystical and religious significance for druids and other groups who go to see how they are in alignment with the first rays of light on midsummer's day every year.

New Plans
One of the plans now being considered is shutting the A344 where it runs next to the stones. A decision on the proposed closure will be made by the end of the year following a three-month consultation. People are also being asked to have their say on whether the Stonehenge visitor centre should be redeveloped or moved. The centre would replace squalid facilities damned 12 years ago by the parliamentary public accounts committee as "a national disgrace".

The Government and English Heritage, which have drawn up the proposals, believe closing the A344 at its junction with the A303 would allow the site to return to grassland, improving the environment around Stonehenge. Exhibitions of the plans will be on show throughout July at sites in Wiltshire and London - comments please on these proposals.

Chris Slocock
BCC Business Representative for the South West
Vice Chairman SWCC
Immediate Past President Dorset Business

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