The Stonehenge road plan is back again!
This website is an archive of the original campaign against a new
highway through the Stonehenge World Heritage site, which ended in 2007
when the plan was defeated. Since then, the plan to drive a highway
through the World Heritage Site has been resurrected! It is, once again, being fought by the excellent
Stonehenge Alliance, representing archaeological, environmental, and transport groups
committed to protecting the World Heritage Site and solving transport problems
in a sustainable way. Please note that this website is a frozen archive of
the old campaign and it is no longer updated. For the latest news about the current campaign, please check out the new Stonehenge Alliance website.
6 December 2007
World Heritage Site SAVED from roadbuilding scheme!
“...barbaric... No other country in the world would contemplate treating a site which is a world icon in such a way.”
Lord Kennet
Picture by Ian Britton from FreeFoto.com
One of the world's most famous heritage sites, Stonehenge,
was threatened by a massive and highly destructive road-building scheme:
- The British Government's Department for Transport was
planning to widen the A303 highway that runs close to the monument.
- The result would effectively have been the "M303": a four-lane dual
carriageway from London to the West Country cutting right through the heart of the
Stonehenge World Heritage Site.
- Only the central 1.3-mile-long section of the new road
nearest to the stone circle would have been in a tunnel. The other six miles of the highway would
have been bulldozed at ground level, or in cuttings (deep trenches), through the
priceless landscape around Stonehenge. Even with the tunnel, over two
miles of brand new, four-lane highway would still have been bulldozed through the
World Heritage Site.
- Outside the tunnel, the World Heritage Site would have been split in two by a
noisy and unsightly dual carriageway (four-lane highway), securely
fenced and with long cuttings leading down to tunnel entrances, lit day and
night.
- The stone circle would not have been harmed, but its
landscape setting would have been badly damaged and other important archaeological remains would
have been destroyed.
- The road, and a massive new visitor centre planned to go with it,
would have had major ecological impacts and damaging effects on local communities.
The plan was finally scrapped
on Thursday, 6 December 2007.
Saving a few minutes of motorists' time
is less important than preserving 5000 years of history.
Thank you for helping us stop this!
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