Stonehenge Tunnel Scheme: YOU decide if this is a scandal!

Highways England is campaigning for the short tunnel, but did you know its shares are all owned by the Secretary of State for Transport, the person who will make the final decision? It means he’s judge, jury, and advocate! To which you can add sneaky: here’s the pro-tunnel campaigning advice Highways England has been spreading around to sympathizers:

Social Media: You could follow A303 Twitter (and Facebook when we launch that), and encourage local community contacts to do the same.  You can comment – potentially tagging political and other influencers, and share with your own followers. You can also create and use community hashtag eg #4stonehengetunnel (which other community supporters can use) – this helps extend the reach of Tweets. You could follow scheme opponents on social media, correcting misinformation where you are qualified (and comfortable) to do so I do appreciate many of you don’t use Twitter/Facebook, but there will be people in your groups/communities that do.

Advice on proactively lobbying/adding support to scheme: You could write a letter to political/influencers expressing your local opinion, and copy to local papers. Or write a letter to local papers or specific national titles (e.g the Guardian) asking for the opportunity to put the case for your community. These could be from either individuals, communities or groups of communities. You could do a similar thing via social media tagging specific people/media. You could express your opinion by participating in a corridor advocacy video we are planning, or volunteer to be included in our upcoming campaign activity. (This does not need to be a video!) You could also be prepared to be approached by the media for comment.

Use existing business connections/memberships (eg chamber of commerce?
Talk about scheme 1-2-1 or at networking events. Identify potential speaking and engagement opportunities, and of course potential new supporters. Put forward scheme as agenda points during parish meetings – we could provide updates

Widen A303 comms reach: Sign up (via re-vamped scheme website – it’s worth a look) to newsletter and forward to contacts. Share content with community social media and publications

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Grant Shapps, who failed O-Level Science and is now judge, jury, and advocate for the short tunnel.