THE PETITION IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU TO ALL SUPPORTERS FOR SIGNING UP!
The petition gained not far off a quarter of a million signatures (239,661) from supporters living in 147 different countries.
A delegation marched from the Royal Courts of Justice to the Secretaries of State for Transport and Culture to hand in the petition with covering letters croll listing the 147 countries on 15 July 2024.
Delegation delivers petition and scroll of countries to Secretary of State for Transport (Louise Haigh)
Delegation delivers petition and scroll of the 147 countries where petitioners came from.
Click here for translations of the petition in other languages
TOTALS ON 19 July, 2024:
38 Degrees 148,292 UK addresses only
Change.org 91,369 world wide
JOINT TOTALS 239,661*
* Since we cannot validate third party platforms we assume that this total will include some duplication, but it can be treated as a firm indication of the strength of feeling.
WHAT DID THE PETITION ASK FOR?
NO FURTHER DAMAGE should be done to the archaeological landscape of Stonehenge.
Future generations would be appalled at those who decided that road widening should be at the expense of England’s most iconic World Heritage Site.
If A303 widening at Stonehenge is felt to be essential it should be done by means of a deep bored tunnel at least 4.5km long. Anything shorter would cause irreparable damage to this landscape, in breach of the World Heritage Convention.
WHY WAS THIS IMPORTANT?
The UK Government proposes to widen the A303 trunk road to the south west. This road crosses the iconic Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS), which has been called “the most archaeologically significant land surface in Europe”. The whole site, extending to beyond the horizons around the famous stones themselves, is c. 5.4 km across. All of it makes up a “huge ancient complex” that holds many secrets yet to be discovered.
The proposal is to put the road into a tunnel where it passes the stones, but the tunnel would be at most only 2.9 km long. This would result in at least 1.6 km of above-ground 21st-century road engineering within the WHS, consisting of new dual carriageway descending in massive trenches to the tunnel portals and possibly a new underpass with slip roads on the western WHS boundary.
Archaeology in the construction zones would be destroyed and the A303 would become the largest ever human intervention in an area fashioned and revered by over a hundred generations of our ancestors.
The whole Stonehenge landscape has an outstanding universal value that is of immense significance for all people for all time, and this transcends any consideration of sorting out a 21st century part-time traffic jam.
NOTE ON PETITION TEXT: Since setting up the petition we told UK Government that:
1. Any road tunnel would need to be long enough to avoid the ENTIRE World Heritage Site and its setting altogether. We cannot change the wording but our intention to avoid further damage is clearly stated in the petition. This would be in line with planning policy and World Heritage Convention safeguards,
and that
2. on the matter of carbon reduction: less damaging options should be explored, including non-road engineering solutions first.
PETITION IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Please also visit our page about our International Representatives and World Heritage Watch
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