The road and short tunnel proposal across Stonehenge World Heritage Site consulted on in Spring 2017 is shown below.
Around 9,000 responses were received by Highways England, the vast majority objected to the scheme. See extract pasted below.
Highways England broadcast the large number of responses, bur because a large number of respondents using our pro forma, and that of Friends of the Earth (edited or otherwise), this was used as a reason to ignore the objections. A Freedom of Information request revealed that 77% disagreed with the scheme.
The consultation responses are in four volumes here.
The technical documents and maps for the Highways England 2017 consultation page here.
2017: Stonehenge Alliance response response to Highways-England 3 March 2017
Our key concerns were:
- Consultation period of 7 weeks was too short for a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- No options offered to protect the World Heritage Site
- Tunnel too short (WHS is 5.4km/3.4 miles wide, tunnel is 2.9km/1.8 miles long).
- Serious damage to archaeology and landscape in direct contravention of planning policy and World Heritage Convention.
- Detrimental to wildlife especially the RSPB reserve for Stone Curlews.
- £1.4bn expenditure won’t solve traffic problems
The Stonehenge Alliance responded to Highways England’s consultation expressing these serious concerns both with the consultation and the proposals.
Link to responses by many other organisations.
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