Stonehenge: Highways England disregards UNESCO experts. Twice.

1.) They’ve invited UNESCO and ICOMOS experts to view the latest plans for a 1.9-mile tunnel but not to see plans for an above ground bypass or a longer tunnel, the two things UNESCO didn’t want ruled out! So why invite them to visit at all? Why not just send a message saying “we’re ignoring your wishes”?

2.) Plus, they’re billing their tunnel as a way “to remove the sight and sound of traffic from the iconic monument” – as if the public and the UNESCO experts are unable to understand the reverse applies: if you remove the sight of traffic from the monument you also remove the sight of the monument from the traffic!

Maybe one should expect no more from a road quango. But what of the conservation bodies who are supporting this greatest-ever betrayal of both the fabric and the view of a heritage asset? Sir Simon Jenkins (once of both English Heritage and The National Trust) may have explained it best: “Stonehenge may not be supernatural, but those who spend their lives peering at it can go mad.”

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“It’s going to be great Mr President: we’re going to hide the road by hiding the stones!”