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At Stonehenge, yes. There the Trust seems mad keen to earn the opprobrium of posterity. But on Trail Hunting, no-one yet knows. Following the recent revelations, it has suspended trail hunting at last but only provisionally. It has long been said the Trust has been infiltrated by the hunting lobby and ITV News has just made further allegations.
Two opportunities for change (the 2020 AGM and the election of new Board Members) were lost due to Covid and although a 2021 AGM is planned it looks probable that, just like happened in 2017, the Chairman, will cast the thousands of proxy votes entrusted to him in favour of continued trail hunting. Watch this space.
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18/01/2021 in Metal detecting (Edit)
People in Devon and Cornwall are being told the Stonehenge tunnel will boost the South West economy. It’s a lie, the 40th Yowling Moggy (the sound made when the truth is being tortured. Here are the other 39.)
It’s easily demonstrated. According to the Highways England Technical Appraisal Report, when travelling past Stonehenge “On an average month, it is estimated that users experience average delays of nearly 9 minutes”. So that means the average time to drive from Highways England’s Head Office in Guildford to St Ives, currently 4 hours 36 minutes, will be reduced to 4 hours 27 minutes. That’s the same as shrinking the distance by 2.9%.
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So, if ANYONE (EH, HE, NT, Wilts Council, and many other bodies in the South West) tells you that will boost the South West economy tell them they are repeating a lie and that to wreck a World Heritage Landscape in defiance of UNESCO on the basis of a lie is unconscionable.
“The A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down scheme is currently subject to a legal challenge but if the project was to proceed, as approved by the Secretary of State for Transport on 12 November 2020, then there will not be a toll for accessing the proposed tunnel. Provision for a toll was not included in the approved Development Consent Order.”
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Not quite the case though is it Rachel? Anyone driving along the A303 hoping to see Stonehenge (and there are tens of thousands daily) won’t be able to unless they leave the road and pay £21.10 per person to English Heritage. Next time, please mention that!
UNESCO is opposed to the short tunnel, so why are neither the Government nor its yes-bodies publicly confronting that fact? Is it that they realise that if Britain is widely known to be defying UNESCO at such a place in such a way there would be massive world anger – so it’s best to downplay it for now?
Not that fear of international censure or even ridicule constrains the Government. A country that threatened to break international law AND deploy gunships against the fishermen of its democratic neighbours is unlikely to heed what UNESCO says.
One wonders if the managements of English Heritage et al realised they would be hitching their wagon to those who dream of lost imperialistic glory and gunboat diplomacy? People who would be delighted with a two-fingered salute to the snowflakes running UNESCO. We suspect there’s quite a lot of buttock-clenching going on in all the conservation bodies.
But unlike Brexiters, they still have a chance to change their minds, and say no, this imperialistic arrogance is crazy. Wouldn’t it be marvelous if they did!
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HMS English Heritage: defending OUR monument from foreign interference?
Spaceship Dawn is in the news just now. After a journey of 3 billion miles, it is now in permanent orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres and has just reported back the discovery of an enormous lake of saltwater.
Back in 2007 we successfully applied to NASA to have Dawn carry the simple message below into space where it will stay forever.
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So it is to be hoped that those attempting to subvert the intentions of the World Heritage Convention and falsely spin a road project as a heritage enhancement exercise will sometimes glance upwards and reflect that what they are supporting is profoundly wrong. We suspect they all will.