DCMS Press Release July 1998

DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

DCMS 177/98 31 July 1998

STONEHENGE: AT LAST, LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL AS DCMS AND DETR JOIN FORCES

The long-standing deadlock in efforts to improve the setting and
presentation of Stonehenge was broken today with the announcement of
improvements to the A303 trunk road as part of the Government's Roads
Review. The decision to proceed with the scheme follows a joint
DETR/DCMS/English Heritage study and a negotiated agreement between
the two Departments. At least a third of the costs will be funded
from heritage sources.

The A303 alongside the stones will be upgraded to a dual
carriageway and hidden from the monument in a 2 km cut-and-cover
tunnel. This will open up the possibility of closure of part of the
A344 which intrudes severely on the World Heritage Site. It will
also allow for the replacement and relocation of the current visitor
facilities, condemned by the Public Accounts Committee in 1993 as a
"national disgrace".

Welcoming the announcement by Transport Minister Dr John Reid,
Culture Secretary Chris Smith said:

"This breakthrough demonstrates the great things that can be
achieved when different arms of government work together for the
wider good. I congratulate the Department of the Environment,
Transport and the Regions on its enlightened attitude in recognising
the heritage and environmental benefits of this scheme and joining my
Department to seize this unique opportunity to improve the setting of
Stonehenge.

"The three quarters of a million people who visit Stonehenge each
year are confronted by an unedifying scene: shabby visitor
facilities, an ugly underpass and the roar of traffic on the roads
which blight the historic landscape and threaten the stones
themselves. The road scheme announced today at last unlocks the
impasse that has met all previous attempts to improve this sorry
state of affairs.

"I will now be looking to English Heritage to produce proposals
for new visitor facilities utilising the Fargo North site, which we

recently identified as providing the best visitor access point to the
stones with the least impact on the local community. I know that Sir
Jocelyn Stevens will take on this task with the same unstinting
enthusiasm and commitment he has shown over several, often
frustrating, years.

"We will be taking matters forward in close consultation with
the local authorities and the local community, and I plan to visit
Amesbury again in September to update local representatives on
progress and look to the future.

"We still have a long way to go, but the day is now in view when
the indignities which the 20th century has heaped on Stonehenge are
removed and people visiting this spectacular World Heritage Site can
enjoy decent access and excellent presentation."

English Heritage Chairman Sir Jocelyn Stevens said:

"The Government's decision to put the A303 back on the Roads
Programme is wonderful news. I congratulate the DETR on taking
account of the impact of their schemes on the natural and cultural
heritage and environment in determining the Roads Programme.

"Working with the local authorities we will at last be able to
re-unite Stonehenge with the prehistoric landscape and to offer the
public safe access throughout the World Heritage Site. I can think
of no better example to the world of how this country cares for its
great heritage."

Notes to Editors

1. The estimated cost of the A303 scheme is *125 million plus VAT,
covering on-line dualling in a 2km cut-and-cover tunnel and a bypass
of Winterbourne Stoke. If assessed solely in terms of transport
benefits, the scheme would not have met the criteria for priority
funding from the Roads Vote. It is therefore being taken forward on
the basis that at least a third of the cost will be funded from
heritage sources. The National Trust has, exceptionally, agreed to
release some of its inalienable land to facilitate the scheme.
Subject to the planning process and after a full archaeological
survey, construction work could begin in 5-7 years.

2. A scheme to dual the A303 between the Amesbury bypass and the
Wylye bypass at Berwick Down first entered the Roads Programme in
1989. Between 1991 and April 1993 over 50 possible routes were
considered prior to public consultation. The Highways Agency held a
Planning Conference in Salisbury in 1995; the only scheme acceptable
to the Conference for a major improvement to the Stonehenge stretch
of the A303 was a long tunnel proposed by English Heritage at a cost
of approximately *300 million. However this was not considered to be
an affordable solution and the scheme was withdrawn from the Roads
Programme in November 1996.

3. Stonehenge is a World Heritage Site. It is managed on behalf of
the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport by English
Heritage and the surrounding land is owned by The National Trust.
When Stonehenge was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in
1986, the then Government undertook to close the A344 as soon as
possible. In June 1998 the World Heritage Committee's Bureau in
Paris adopted the following resolution: "The Bureau expressed its
satisfaction with the management and presentation proposals for the
Stonehenge World Heritage Site. It stressed, however, the need for
closure of the road passing close to the monument (the A344),
foreseen when the Site was Inscribed on the List in 1986, and for the
completion of a Management Plan with the minimum delay."