Plan for tunnel diverting traffic away from Stonehenge gets green light

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A £1.7billion plan to build a tunnel diverting traffic away from Stonehenge has today been given the green light.

The new two-mile tunnel is planned to be built south of the current A303, which runs within a few hundred metres of the famous UNESCO world heritage site in Wiltshire.

The controversial plans will see the road diverted into the new dual-carriageway tunnel, while the current A303 – a main route for motorists travelling to and from the south west – will be turned into a public walkway.

Those behind the scheme hope it will help tackle congestion in the area – which is often at a standstill during Bank Holiday weekends.

But it will bring to an end a well-known tradition of drivers slowing down to take a glimpse of the Neolithic monument from the current road.

Meanwhile, critics, including druids, green campaigners and archaeologists, have hit out at the scheme, with one describing the project as a ‘complete violation’.

The latest plans, which were first unveiled by Highways England in 2017, were today given the green light by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who approved a development consent order.

Highways England says its plan for the dual carriageway tunnel, located 164ft further away from Stonehenge compared to the existing A303 route, will remove the sight and sound of traffic passing the site and cut journey times.  

The area is often severely congested on the single carriageway stretch near the stones, particularly on Bank Holiday weekends. 

But some environmentalists and archaeologists have voiced their opposition to the plan due to its potential impact on the area.  

Modern day druids, who each year celebrate the winter and summer solstices at Stonehenge, have also hit out at the plans.

Cas Smith, a druid and anti-tunnel campaigner, said it was a ‘complete violation’.

She told the BBC: ‘You wouldn’t dream of pushing a bore tunnel next door to Salisbury Cathedral, so why Stonehenge.’ 

The Stonehenge Alliance, a campaign group which opposes the plans and has gained nearly 60,000 signatures on an online petition, have also hit out at today’s announcement.

Dr Kate Fielden, from the Stonehenge Alliance, told the BBC that building the tunnel would remove ‘what was once there and has been there for thousands of years’.

The group has previously called for any tunnel to be deeper and more extensive, over concerns of damage to the landscape surrounding Stonehenge. 

English Heritage welcomed the decision as a ‘landmark day for Stonehenge’.

Its chief executive, Kate Mavor, told the Guardian: ‘Placing the noisy and intrusive A303 within a tunnel will reunite Stonehenge with the surrounding prehistoric landscape and help future generations to better understand and appreciate this wonder of the world.’ 

Today’s announcement is the latest in a 25-year battle over the proposals, which were first touted in 1995.

Proposals for a simple cut and cover tunnel were put forward by the government in 1999, but were criticised at the time by groups, including the National Trust.

New plans for a properly bored tunnel were announced in 2002 – at the cost of £183million – but these were again criticised.

A public inquiry in 2004 found the plans were adequate, but were ditched a year later by the government after a rise in construction costs meant the bill had more than doubled, to around £470million.  

The scheme was again touted in 2015, but came under immediate fire from historians, including Dan Snow, who likened ministers to vandals and zealots who destroy artefacts of ancient civilisations.

Time Team presenter Tony Robinson also labelled the tunnel ‘the most brutal intrusion into the Stone Age landscape ever’. 

Proposals for a tunnel were again approved by the government in 2017, with then Transport Secretary announcing the scheme would ‘transform the A303, cutting congestion and improving journey times’.

In 2018 Highways England held consultations for the scheme, which had now risen in cost to around £1.6million.

This time, the plans featured a grass covered canopy at one end to help it blend into the landscape.

The National Trust, English Heritage and government agency Historic England, welcomed ‘improvements’ to the plans, but groups such as the Stonehenge Alliance continued to oppose the proposals.

Public-private funding was due to be used to finance the work, but in October 2018 then-chancellor Philip Hammond cancelled future deals using that model. 

The scheme came under scrutiny again this year, when in February it was revealed that survey work carried out on the UNESCO World Heritage Site last summer had allegedly uncovered a series of issues that would escalate the cost to over £2billion. 

Then, in his first ever budget in March this year, Chancellor Rishi Sunak told the Commons described the A303 as ‘one of our most important regional arteries.

He said: ‘Every year, millions of cars crawl along it in traffic, ruining the backdrop to one of our most important historic landmarks.’

But he said the scheme had become  ‘one of those totemic projects symbolising delay and obstruction’. 

He announced that the tunnel project would be part of a £27billion masterplan to improve the nation’s roads.

Then, in June, it emerged that a team of archaeologists had discovered a ring of at least 20 large shafts within the World Heritage Site, a short distance from the stones.

Experts believe these may have served as a boundary to a sacred area.

Despite this, plans have now been given the go-ahead again by the government. 

The project is classified as nationally significant, which means a Development Consent Order is needed for it to go ahead.

The Planning Inspectorate – an executive agency of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – recommended the Transport Secretary withhold consent.

The inspectorate said the project would substantially and permanently harm the integrity and authenticity of the World Heritage Site, which includes the stone circle and the wider archaeology-rich landscape.

In a report to Mr Shapps, the officials said permanent, irreversible harm, critical to the outstanding universal value of the site, or why it is internationally important, would occur, ‘affecting not only our own, but future generations’.

The Department for Transport wrote to Highways England stating that: ‘The Secretary of State is satisfied that, on balance, the need case for the development together with the other benefits identified outweigh any harm.’

There is now a six-week period in which the decision can be challenged in the High Court.

Preparatory work is due to begin in spring next year, with the five-year construction phase expected to start by 2023.