New plans by the Highways Agency (1) to upgrade the A303 trunk road near to Stonehenge would devastate an outstanding archaeological landscape of international importance (2) according to the Stonehenge Alliance, a group of environmental organizations opposed to the scheme (3).

If completed, the plan would sink the central 1.3-mile (2.1-km) section of the road into a tunnel bored beneath the UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS). But it would also involve bulldozing new junctions, slip roads, and a brand new four-lane dual carriageway across one third of the WHS causing massive destruction to the protected landscape.

The Stonehenge Alliance is not alone in criticizing the plan. UNESCO's official adviser on UK World Heritage Sites, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS-UK), has said it does not support the short (2.1 km) bored tunnel. The National Trust, which owns much of the land around Stonehenge, has asked the Highways Agency to explain why it will not consider longer tunnels [4].

Speaking for the Stonehenge Alliance, Kate Fielden said: "Stonehenge is not just the stone circle: it's a unique complex of interrelated monuments extending over a landscape of some 5,000 acres [5]. The Highways Agency's glossy before-and-after photos are highly misleading: they show nothing of the destruction on either side of the short tunnel; nor do they give any idea of the visual impact of its presence in such a special place. Even with the tunnel, the sound of traffic would still be heard at Stonehenge. We welcome efforts to secure the future of the World Heritage Site, but we fail to see how bulldozing a motorway through it would achieve that end. This hugely damaging and intrusive scheme would provoke an international outcry; the government must look at other alternatives."

Contact: Dr Kate Fielden, Secretary of the Stonehenge Alliance.

Notes to editors:

1. A303 Stonehenge Improvement: Have Your Say On Detailed Plans, Highways Agency News Release 500/SWW/03, 29 May 2003, reissued 5 June 2003.

2. "The Stonehenge World Heritage Site is internationally recognized as an outstanding archaeological landscape. Inscription on the World Heritage List places Stonehenge, with Avebury and its associated sites, beside other World Heritage Sites of outstanding universal value such as the Pyramids in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and the Great Wall of China." Foreword to the Stonehenge World Heritage Site Management Plan, English Heritage, April 2000.

3. The Stonehenge Alliance is an informal alliance of organizations and individuals formed, under the Chairmanship of Lord Kennet, to oppose the Government's currently preferred road scheme for the upgrading of the A303 at Stonehenge and to put forward alternatives which are less damaging to archaeology and the environment. Stonehenge Alliance supporters include: Ancient Sacred Landscapes Network, The Council for the Protection of Rural England, Friends of the Earth, RESCUE: The British Archaeological Trust, The Pagan Federation, and Transport 2000.

4. ICOMOS-UK Press Release, 12 December 2002; National Trust Press Release, 10 December 2002.

5. "The boundary of the WHS encompasses over 2,000 hectares [5000 acres] of land containing a high density of both buried and visible 'upstanding' archaeological sites and monuments... Much of the area surrounding the WHS is also of archaeological importance." Stonehenge World Heritage Site Management Plan, English Heritage, April 2000, section 2.1.8. ***ENDS ***