PRESS STATEMENT for THE STONEHENGE ALLIANCE

For immediate release: 6 December 2007

Members of the Stonehenge Alliance are delighted to learn today that the A303 Stonehenge Improvement Scheme has been scrapped.

The Alliance has campaigned for more than a decade against a road-widening scheme that would have severely damaged substantial parts of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The 2.1km tunnel promoted by English Heritage and the Highways Agency would have protected only the central part of the Site, while the cuttings and dual carriageways emerging from it would have left a deeply scarred archaeological landscape, blighted by secure fences and traffic noise.

Now the surroundings of Stonehenge, including the settlement and burial remains of those who built this world famous monument, can be left undisturbed. We shall have time to look for appropriate ways to put right some of the mistakes that have damaged the landscape in the past—and to conserve and present the World Heritage Site in the manner it truly deserves.

Like other independent archaeological and conservation organisations, we hope that non-destructive measures will be employed to improve the surroundings of the monument and ease traffic problems on the A303. The immediate need is for closure of the A344/A303 junction that at present allows busy traffic to disturb the tranquillity of the henge. Together with traffic calming measures on the A303 and a re-vamp for the present visitor-facilities, a visit to Stonehenge could be made much more enjoyable at comparatively little cost.

THE STONEHENGE ALLIANCE IS SUPPORTED BY:
Ancient Sacred Landscape Network; CPRE, Friends of the Earth, RESCUE: The British Archaeological Trust, The Pagan Federation, and Transport 2000