Stonehenge at Risk

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This is the latest update from the Save Stonehenge Alliance:
(We have edited this text from the original email in order for it work on the web)
See the Stonehenge Alliance site here

In this enthralling issue:

1. Tunnel scheme runs out of road
2. Stonehenge - the road ahead?
3. What you can do to help

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1. Tunnel scheme runs out of road

It's about six months since we last wrote to you and quite a lot has happened on the Stonehenge front. Most importantly, the British government's Department for Transport announced at the end of July 2005 that the estimated cost of the Stonehenge tunnel scheme has now risen to approximately 500 million pounds (getting on for 900 million US dollars)... and is still rising! That whopping figure makes it almost inconceivable that the tunnel scheme will now go ahead.

In the light of that announcement, plans for a new 57 million pound (100 million US dollar) visitor centre were also turned down. However, the plans are likely to be resubmitted soon.

Together, the tunnel highway scheme and the visitor centre plan are known as The Stonehenge Project. They have been championed enthusiastically by the Department for Transport's Highways Agency (the UK government department charged with building and maintaining highways) and English Heritage (the UK government department supposedly responsible for protecting such historical places as Stonehenge).

No-one else is supporting the Stonehenge Project with any enthusiasm; the whole plan is rapidly unravelling.

So what now?

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2. Stonehenge - the road ahead?

In the light of this confusion, the Highways Agency announced five new options for Stonehenge at the end of January 2006. On closer inspection, these are four old options that have previously been rejected, plus a minor tweaking of the existing road that would increase traffic pressure for a new road through the World Heritage Site at some point in the future.

Briefly, the "new" options are:

a) The current tunnel scheme - way out of contention now because of its high, 500 million pound cost. But many groups (including Save Stonehenge!) opposed it anyway because of its destructive impact on the overall World Heritage Site.

b and c) Highways to either the north or the south of the stone circle, but passing mostly at surface level across the World Heritage Site. Universally opposed because they would be incredibly intrusive into the peace of the Stonehenge landscape. There was worldwide press coverage -- from India to Australia -- when the British bird conservation organization, RSPB, revealed that two of the DfT's old/new options would destroy nesting and roosting sites of the stone curlew bird, which has only two UK strongholds. RSPB said these plans would also harm prospects for more than 25 other bird species and 14 butterfly species.

d) Cut-and-cover tunnel: This would be a crude highway gouged through the ancient landscape with a roof built on top. Most of you will remember that this was the original plan for Stonehenge until it was dropped in 2002. Lord Kennet, former British environment minister and campaigner for Stonehenge, memorably noted this option would be "Barbaric. No other country in the world would contemplate treating a site which is a world icon in such a way." The British government itself conceded that the cut-and-cover tunnel was massively destructive when it dropped that plan in December 2002. Now it appears to be considering bringing it back!

e) A "partial solution": This involves upgrading roundabouts on the current A303 highway at either of the World Heritage Site. There is no good reason for doing this; it will simply increase pressure to build a highway (options a-d) through the World Heritage Site at some point in the future.

Twelve groups representing environmental, archaeological, and transport interests damned the new proposals within hours of their announcement (The National Trust, CPRE, RSPB, Friends of the Earth, ICOMOS-UK, Council for British Archaeology, Rescue - British Archaeological Trust, Pagan Federation UK, Stonehenge Alliance, Save Stonehenge, Ancient Sacred Landscapes Network, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural Heritage Society).

Mike Birkin of Friends of the Earth UK summed up the reactions of Stonehenge campaigners: "The choices on the table are not new and they are still not acceptable. The choice seems to be between damaging this valuable World Heritage Site now or damaging it later."

For more information about what the 12 groups said, see: http://www.savestonehenge.org.uk/ssnr240106.html

Since then, questions asked in the British Parliament by Salisbury MP (and former roads minister) Robert Key reveal that, between them, the Highways Agency and English Heritage have squandered a scandalous 23 million pounds of taxpayers' money on their "Stonehenge Project" since 2000 -- with absolutely no visible progress and no public benefit. ---------------------------------------------------------- 3. What you can do to help The British Government has just announced a public consultation on the five new options for "improving" (i.e. widening) the A303 through Stonehenge World Heritage Site. We'd like you to write in please expressing OPPOSITION to these new plans. They still don't deliver a decent future for Stonehenge and its surrounding landscape. You can download a detailed leaflet about the new proposals here: http://www.highways.gov.uk/stonehenge/ and read a longer summary of recent developments here: http://www.savestonehenge.org.uk/stonec.html Please send your oppositions by 24 APRIL 2006 to: The Stonehenge Project Highways Agency Zone 2/26-H Temple Quay House 2 The Square Temple Quay BRISTOL BS1 6HA UK You can email to neil.chapman@highways.gsi.gov.uk but a letter is MUCH better. Please try to keep your letters and emails sane and polite (rude and loopy letters written in blood or wax crayon don't help anyone!). Please start letters: "I am writing to object to the five road schemes proposed for Stonehenge". Your letter can be as long or short as you wish. There is a short example letter at the bottom of this email that you can edit as you wish. If you have a particular alternative for Stonehenge that you would like to be considered instead, please add in details below. Thank you as always, so much, for your help. The fight goes on. Chris Save Stonehenge! email: info@savestonehenge.org.uk http://www.savestonehenge.org.uk/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's a quick sample letter. I'm sure you can write a much better one in your own words! Send to: The Stonehenge Project Highways Agency Zone 2/26-H Temple Quay House 2 The Square Temple Quay BRISTOL BS1 6HA UK Dear Sir, Stonehenge Scheme Review - Public Consultation I am writing to OBJECT to all five of the road schemes proposed in your new public consultation. None of these options is satisfactory. The National Trust, the British conservation charity that owns the landscape around the Stonehenge stone circle, has said: "The five options outlined in the Review and the consultative process by which the Government arrived at this decision, focus on transport solutions for Stonehenge which denigrate its status as a World Heritage Site. These schemes will not return the world famous stones to the tranquillity they deserve and threaten to damage valuable archaeology." We have now wasted many years and twenty-three millions of pounds of public money pursuing expensive and destructive highway schemes -- and got nowhere. It's time to stop pretending that the so-called "Stonehenge Project" has anything to do with improving the setting of Stonehenge; it's time to concede that it was always a road-widening scheme pretending to be something else. It's time to stop spending public money, supposedly intended for protecting our heritage, on road-building schemes that would do nothing of the sort. From now on, we should make the importance of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site our overwhelming priority. I request that you scrap these road-building options immediately and investigate realistic, affordable solutions that respect the integrity of the whole World Heritage Site instead. Start from that premise and you will surely bring improvements for motorists too. This does not mean we "do nothing" about Stonehenge; rather that we take effective steps to improve the site without inflicting any more damage on it. You could start by closing the A344 road that passes right next to the stone circle. You could investigate low-cost, low-impact, quick-to-implement measures to improve traffic congestion and safety near Stonehenge. When Dorset Police tried similar measures on an 18-mile section of the A37 between Dorchester and Yeovil, not far from Stonehenge, over the last few years, they cut accident rates by 75% without a single penny being spent building highways. You might also look into improved public-transport links between Salisbury and Amesbury to make the Stonehenge experience better for visitors. All of these things you could do very quickly, making an enormous difference to the Stonehenge site, to visitors, to the local community, and to motorists too--at very little cost. Yours faithfully, Your name

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