Redetermination of A303 Stonehenge road scheme

A Press Release from the Stonehenge Alliance:

Western tunnel entrance and cutting | Photo and image credit: National Highways 2019

The Secretary of State for Transport wants to make a new decision on the Stonehenge road scheme. He asked National Highways for responses to five matters he wishes to consider i.e.  Alternatives, Policy, Carbon, Environmental Information and Any Other Matters. 

National Highways has responded. (See “Documents” tab in this link) and the Secretary of State for Transport has now invited comments on these submissions and any other relevant information.

Comments must be submitted by midnight on 4 April 2022.

The submissions by National Highways are technical and lengthy.  The Stonehenge Alliance and its expert advisers are preparing a full technical response which we will share in due course.   

However, it is important that the Secretary of State for Transport hears from the wider public on these issues.  We’re therefore asking as many people to respond as possible, raising some or all of the points below.

If you can, please make the points in your own words and add any other points you might wish to make.  

National Highways has not:

• made any changes to the Scheme to take the 2021 World Heritage Committee Decision into account;
• acknowledged that the Secretary of State found the Scheme’s impact on the proposed western cutting area would be “significantly adverse”;
• fully assessed alternative routes less damaging to the World Heritage Site e.g., a southern bypass route would be cheaper even if there might be some problems with it, while a longer tunnel would reduce impact on the World Heritage Site;
• explored alternatives to hard engineering solutions in the context of safeguarding and enhancing the World Heritage Site – e.g. a package of measures to reduce road traffic, road emissions and improve access to the South West;
• updated the scheme construction costs; nor
• updated the carbon assessment and costs.

Other changes since the Examination closed:

• concern for climate change has increased with the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and the need to take urgent action to reduce emissions, not increase them as any new Stonehenge road scheme would; and
• the Environment Act 2021 sets new ambitions around nature recovery.

Please email your responses by 4 April to: A303Stonehenge@planninginspectorate.gov.uk, remembering to include your name and address.

Many thanks for your help and continued support.

John Adams OBE
Chairman
The Stonehenge Alliance