Press quotes
These are ready-made press quotes for that urgent, just-can't wait story that you should have filed yesterday! Please attribute the quotes to "a spokesman for Save Stonehenge".
Stonehenge versus the motorist?
"There has been a monument at Stonehenge for over 5000 years. Are we seriously talking about sacrificing 5000 years of history to make each motorist's journey a few minutes quicker?"
"Stonehenge has been with us 5000 years; the automobile has been with us 100. This scheme will wreck an irreplaceable, ancient landscape forever just so motorists can get their quick fix for a few more years. It's like mugging an old lady for a few quid. All decent people should be appalled by this plan."
The value of Stonehenge
"Stonehenge is priceless. Ironically, that means it has no monetary value at all. It is cheaper to build a road through the priceless Stonehenge World Heritage Site than through the agricultural land right next to it. It's absurd."
What do we think of this highway plan?
"This is the wrong solution for Stonehenge. What we care about is doing the right thing. Not the quickest thing. Not the cheapest thing. But the right thing."
Can the British government do whatever they like?
"This is a World Heritage Site. it belongs to the people of the world. It belongs to history. It does not belong to the British government to mess about with, bulldoze, and abuse as it pleases."
"What we need is for people around the world to sit up and take notice of this right now. We need people in other countries to say to the British government: "You cannot do this. This is our history as much as it's yours. We will not let you do this." They need to hear that message loud and clear."
Stonehenge theme park
"A lot of people are very unhappy with the way English Heritage has managed -- or mismanaged -- Stonehenge over the years. What they are intending now, in collusion with the roadbuilders, is to turn Stonehenge into a giant theme park with twice as many visitors. Stonehenge cannot handle that number of visitors. It will ruin the place completely."
"There is a big issue here. Why, for example, are English Heritage still insisting on charging visitors to see Stonehenge? Many comparable sites elsewhere in the world, and in the US, do not charge. The agenda here is to rip people off and make money."
Isn't this scheme economically important?
"The so-called "economic benefits" are a total work of fiction. In 1998, a government report said this scheme had "marginal economic benefit" when it was estimated to cost around 125 million pounds. Now the cost has shot up to 190 million pounds -- so logically the economic benefit is a fraction of what it was. It's now so low that it's off the scale."
Won't local people benefit from this highway?
"What about the people who live at Countess Road? They'll be getting masses more traffic from a massive increase in visitors and a gigantic flyover in their backyard as well. Their semi-rural neighbourhood will become an urban nightmare. They won't know what's hit them. Two nights a month, all the A303 traffic will be diverted past their front doors when the tunnel is closed for maintenance. Not much benefit for them, really. In the long run, they will see vastly more traffic both from the A303 and from the huge increase in visitors to Stonehenge."
"It must be a nightmare to live in Winterbourne Stoke with so much traffic passing through. But Winterbourne Stoke's problems are quite separate from those of Stonehenge. It doesn't take £190 million to put things right at Winterbourne Stoke. The British government couldn't care less about Winterbourne Stoke. It's nice for them to say that Winterbourne Stoke will benefit, but their real concern is upgrading the A303 so thousands more vehicles can speed along it."
Isn't this all being done for the benefit of Stonehenge?
"This road is a Trojan horse. They claim to be building it for the benefit of Stonehenge. Nothing could be further from the truth: it is part of a wider plan to create a massive new M303 motorway, by stealth, from London to the West Country. They are building the tunnel only because they have to. It's the only way they can build their road."
"The British government talks about its plan to remove "20th century clutter" from Stonehenge; what it doesn't mention is its determination to replace it with "21st century clutter" that in our view will be even more destructive and intrusive."
Won't this road stop accidents and save lives?
"Accidents. Good question. One of the worst bits of the road is the junction next to Stonehenge where the A344 meets the A303. When UNESCO agreed to make this is a World Heritage Site in 1986, it attached a condition that the A344 be closed. That could have happened immediately. It could happen tomorrow. Fifteen years later, the road is still open. The Highways Agency must explain why it's keeping that dangerous junction open with the risk of serious accidents and loss of life. Closing the A344 tomorrow would improve safety enormously and bring immediate benefits to Stonehenge."
"The way to reduce accidents and save lives is to reduce traffic and make people drive more safely, to get more people off the roads and onto public transportation. Building ever bigger roads and putting ever more cars on them does not save lives; it simply moves the problems elsewhere."
Why are you still fighting? Haven't you lost already?
Well they said we were stupid to oppose their last plan, which would have literally bulldozed the road right through the middle of the World Heritage Site. Dr Geoffrey Wainright, English Heritage's former chief archaeologist, went so far as to say that it was "total nonsense to say a great deal of archaeological damage will be done. The tunnel is for the greater good. You have to compromise." So we were talking "total nonsense". Then, in December 2002, the British government admitted that plan would have been massively damaging after all. Dr Geoffrey Wainwright admitted that "the thought of gouging that massive trench across such a precious landscape just brought tears to my eyes". Hmmm.
"Now we have a new plan. It's a far better plan than the old one, but that doesn't mean it's a good plan, not by a long way. Lots of very important people still oppose this road. UNESCO's official advisers, ICOMOS-UK, don't support it. The National Trust want a longer tunnel. The Stonehenge Alliance says it will be "massively destructive." Hardly a ringing endorsement from some of the country's most important archaeologists and environmentalists.
"We beat the old plan. We will beat this one. We will settle for the best -- only the best -- solution for Stonehenge. Nothing less."
The Highways Agency is holding a public exhibition and listening to people's views -- that must be a good thing?
"The exhibition is a legal requirement under European environmental legislation. They're doing this only because they have to. I expect they're smiling when they hand out the questionnaires because they know they'll throw them straight in the bin. Just like controversial roads of the past -- Twyford Down and the Newbury bypass -- this road will be bulldozed through Stonehenge with no thought for public opposition. But the pretence of public consultation could backfire badly. If the Highways Agency thinks three days of tea and biscuits in an Amesbury hotel will deter three years of protest when the bulldozers start rolling, they�ve got another think coming."
The artist's impressions seem to show a much improved landscape around Stonehenge
"It's all highly misleading and very far from the truth. For example, the mockup of the new tunnel entrance shows a road with only two carriageways instead of four and absolutely no traffic on the new road whatsoever! How convenient for them that their photos show the current roads packed with traffic and the new roads completely empty. That's not misleading at all, is it?"
"What these photos don�t show is the effect beyond the central zone of the tunnel where four new lanes of concrete and tarmac will be crudely bulldozed through the World Heritage Site. So much for restoring Stonehenge. What this plan really does is turn it into a traffic island with two dual new carriageways at both ends."