“Save Stonehenge!” “No Stonehenge tunnel!” Will Government Act to save its blushes?
Protestors against the proposed £2.5bn tunnel and dual carriageway across the Stonehenge landscape gathered in the rain on Monday (July 15) outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London to mark the start of what they hope will be the final act in their campaign.
Earlier Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site (SSWHS) had opened its case in the Court of Appeal in support of its bid to overturn the Development Consent Order (DCO) for the A303 Stonehenge scheme. The then Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had approved the scheme in 2020, which was subsequently overturned by SSWHS’s legal. challenge. In 2023 Shapps’ successor, Mark Harper, once again granted the DCO, the official go-ahead for the works SSWHS has been challenging, in and out of court, ever since.
The crowdfunder launched to meet the costs of pursuing the legal action had overshot its target with days to spare. The strength of feeling was clear.

Protesters chanted for the benefit of cameras – and their wider audience.
While John Adams, one of the campaign leaders, gave interviews to BBC TV and ITV, activists from a number of groups working to support the Stonehenge Alliance stood before the entrance to the courts peacefully holding signs, placards and the famous long banner which the campaign had unfurled in support of the cause.
Afterwards a group of campaigners made their way to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in Parliament St and onwards to the Department of Transport in Horseferry Rd to formally “hand in” at each place a petition in opposition to the Stonehenge scheme signed by over 239,000 people in 147 countries. The petition was received by department officials on behalf of ministers.

14 of us posed outside the Department for Culture, Media and Sport with a copy of the scroll hand delivered to UNESCO in Paris. It listed the 147 countries whence our 239,500 petition signatories came. But delivery of the petition was not through the front door. See below.
The Stonehenge Alliance is cautiously optimistic that the new government will look more favourably at the arguments against the road project than their Tory predecessors.

Handing in of the petition letter at DCMS was a discreet affair: via the back door. We were assured that it would be delivered to Lisa Nandy’s office.
However they know the ruling of the Appeal Court will be crucial. The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has already given the classic lawyer’s response, saying he will wait to see the outcome of the court hearing. As Starmer knows full well, the case rests on the lawfulness of the decision not the merits of the scheme. But ministers have already hinted at a relaxation of planning rules, with growth a priority for the new government. Will the new government view the damaging road scheme as a growth opportunity (despite its appalling economic case), or an opportunity to save over £2.5bn and reinvest it in rail and other services that have reached crisis point?
The next important date in the campaign comes next week (21 – 31 July). UNESCO, which has already voiced its strong objections to the tunnel plans, could move one step closer to taking away the site’s status altogether. UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee is meeting in Delhi to decide whether to place Stonehenge on its List of World Heritage in Danger.
John Adams told the BBC that cancelling the project “would spare our international blushes and rebuild this country’s reputation for looking after its heritage.”

Delivery of the petition letter and scroll to the Department for Transport was an altogether more flamboyant ceremony.