Write to Highways England 2018

Write to UNESCO

Dear Madame de Sancristobelo,

I am shocked that our Government has once again approved the discredited road scheme, ignoring the decisions of the World Heritage Committee. It intends to proceed with the highly damaging A303 Stonehenge road widening that would cause significant harm to the Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS). The previous decision to grant a Development Consent Order was declared unlawful following a High Court hearing.

This is to disregard the advice of the World Heritage Centre and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) following their advisory mission reports for Stonehenge WHS. It also overrides the recommendations of the UK Government’s own Examination Panel that said the scheme should not go ahead because it would do “substantial harm to the significance of the designated heritage asset”.

No road scheme should be permitted to cause further damage to the WHS, which is agreed by UNESCO and our Government, to be a "landscape without parallel". I urge UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre and the World Heritage Committee to continue to speak up for our highly valued WHS. I would be horrified if this damaging road scheme were to be built leading to the possibility of World Heritage status being withdrawn.

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Over 5,000 members of Friends of the Earth signed a similar standard letter of objection. For details about Highways England’s 2018 proposal please visit the Highways England website.

We continue to reminding the UK Government of their commitment to the World Heritage Site. Petition here.

If you’d like to keep in touch please sign up to our blogs in the right hand column —>

What happens next?

The A303 Stonehenge Project is a National Infrastructure Planning Project  and subject to a successful application for a Development Consent Order. Following the end of the pre-application consultation there will 28 days for the Planning Inspectorate to review the application and decide whether or not to accept it for examination. If the examination is accepted we will publish the timescale within which people can register to become an Interested Party by making a Relevant Representation. More about the process on the Planning Inspectorate website here.  Highways England’s timeline is pasted below. Click on image to enlarge.

And finally… will we be ignored?

We need to continue to engage with optimism.  Past experience however leads us to doubt the validity of the consultation process. 77% of us objected to the short tunnel proposal in 2017 but were sidelined.  Will this consultation be another expensive charade to satisfy Highways England’s political paymasters? There has not been a balance of facts.  Little national outreach and international outreach is likely to as a result of our efforts.  We believe that Highways England and Government will listen selectively and conclude with the answer it seeks.

We need to record and save our complaints for the Public Examination expected in 2019.  Please keep supporting this campaign and:

1 Please sign our petition and encourage your friends to do likewise.

2. Please write to UNESCO and, if possible, to the National Trust as well, expressing your concerns. Editing your responses in your own words to be more effective.

3. Follow our campaign on Facebook, Twitter and our blog.

4. Make a donation to help us meet our mounting costs here.

5. Volunteer! Distribute leaflets, volunteer, or buy a T shirt. Follow the links opposite.

Consultation appeal (Archived 23 April)
Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS) is this country’s most important prehistoric landscape, valued the world over for its outstanding complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments and buried archaeology. The recently-discovered Mesolithic site of Blick Mead dates back over eight millennia. The landscape inspires spiritual celebrations, artists, writers, historians and people from all walks of life to this day.

Despite the importance of this WHS, the UK Government plans to build a vast dual carriageway across the landscape, with massive tunnel portals emerging into deep cuttings for around a mile of new roads. Slip roads to a double interchange would destroy the western setting of the WHS. Irreparable damage would be inflicted upon this remarkable place.

The plans are nothing short of an international scandal. If we allow the damaging A303 Stonehenge scheme to go ahead, nowhere is safe from the bulldozer. We have a global duty to safeguard the whole WHS. It is shocking that our national bodies with obligations to care for our heritage are supporting Highways England’s scheme.

UNESCO, the international body responsible for inscribing World Heritage Sites, has expressed grave concerns.

Write to Highways England today!

Please complete the form with your details and edit the text in your own words and language if you wish.

Thank you.

Write to UNESCO

Dear Madame de Sancristobelo,

I am shocked that our Government has once again approved the discredited road scheme, ignoring the decisions of the World Heritage Committee. It intends to proceed with the highly damaging A303 Stonehenge road widening that would cause significant harm to the Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS). The previous decision to grant a Development Consent Order was declared unlawful following a High Court hearing.

This is to disregard the advice of the World Heritage Centre and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) following their advisory mission reports for Stonehenge WHS. It also overrides the recommendations of the UK Government’s own Examination Panel that said the scheme should not go ahead because it would do “substantial harm to the significance of the designated heritage asset”.

No road scheme should be permitted to cause further damage to the WHS, which is agreed by UNESCO and our Government, to be a "landscape without parallel". I urge UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre and the World Heritage Committee to continue to speak up for our highly valued WHS. I would be horrified if this damaging road scheme were to be built leading to the possibility of World Heritage status being withdrawn.

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More details about the scheme on the Highways England website.

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