Stonehenge tunnel plan under fire

From: The Salisbury and Andover Avon Advertiser, Wednesday 12th May 1999, page 1.

The proposed Stonehenge Road tunnel and bypass for Winterbourne Stoke have both been criticized by a leading national environmental transport group.

According to Transport 2000, the cut-and-cover tunnel proposed for the A303 past Stonehenge will "slash right through open landscape leaving a permanent scar and damaging 16 archaeological sites".

The group claims the bypass for Winterbourne Stoke has relied on the "heritage argument" to slip it into the road programme through the back door.

Transport 2000 spokeswoman Denise Carlo said: "We support the Government's purpose in trying to reunite Stonehenge with its surrounding landscape but not at any price.

"We believe the proposed work would cause irreparable damage to the world heritage site as a whole."

The group is calling for a full independent assessment of a bored tunnel instead of a cut-and-cover one and it claims a single carriageway would minimise environmental damage and discourage traffic growth.

For Winterbourne Stoke the group suggests that alternative solutions such as traffic management should be thoroughly tested before any major road building is considered.

"Stonehenge is possibly 5000 years old and modern transport policies have effectively made it a traffic island. A cut-and-cover tunnel might cut costs but it also cuts corners in a way that's unacceptable," she said.

Denise Carlo added: "What we need is a scheme that respects the importance of this world heritage side."

The cost of the Stonehenge Agreement project, which includes a new visitor centre and the cut-and-cover tunnel, is thought to be around £125 million compared with a total cost of between £250 million and £300 million if a bored tunnel was constructed to hide the A303.