Archived press release

Don't blight stonehenge new alliance warns

18 October 2001

'Stonehenge has stood mysterious and powerful for thousands of years. We must not let this ancient landscape be forever blighted by short-term traffic improvements.' (Clare Slaney, Save our Sacred Sites)

An alliance of leading environment, transport and archaeology organisations has been formed. See footnote 1 to warn that the Stonehenge World Heritage Site would be badly damaged by a planned road scheme. The scheme would dual the A303 close to the Stones as part of a so-called 'Master Plan' for the Site. The Government's “preferred route” would include 2km-long cut-and-cover tunnels near the Stones. Many acres of sensitive archaeological landscape would be disturbed, ancient sites would be destroyed and the wider landscape setting permanently disfigured. Much of the land involved belongs to the National Trust, now under pressure from some members to reconsider its position. See footnote 2.

The 'Master Plan' road proposals appear to conflict with Britain's explicit duties under the World Heritage Convention. See footnote 3. A parallel Management Plan for the whole great Site,agreed after public consultation, is, however, fully compatible with those duties.

There is an alternative road solution, approved by informed consensus in 1995(including English Heritage and the National Trust): a 4km-long bored tunnel under the whole site. Although technically feasible, this was without consultation rejected by the Government in 1997 as unaffordable.

The Stonehenge at Risk leaflet, produced by the Stonehenge Alliance, explains what is being proposed, and why the Government should think again.

Kate Freeman of Wiltshire FOE said:

"All parties agreed at the 1995 conference that Stonehenge must have the best solution, but that hard won consensus has been thrown out by the Government in favour of the cheap and dirty option”

Kate Fielden of Wiltshire CPRE said:

“Stonehenge is much more than the Stones alone. The whole area is a remarkable complex of ancient remains which deserves the strongest protection. This is why it has been designated a World Heritage Site. It is scandalous to propose carving a huge trench through one of the best known and most important archaeological landscapes in the World.”

Denise Carlo of Transport 2000 said:

"The Highways Agency must not be allowed to treat Stonehenge as a mere obstacle to its grand plans for a motorway style link from London to Penzance"

Kate Freeman of Wiltshire FOE said:

"All parties agreed at the 1995 conference that Stonehenge must have the
best solution, but that hard won consensus has been thrown out by the
Government in favour of the cheap and dirty option.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The Stonehenge Alliance is an informal alliance of organisations and individuals formed,under the Chairmanship of Lord Kennet, to oppose the Government's currently preferred 'Master Plan' road scheme for the upgrading of the A303 at Stonehenge and to put forward alternatives which are less damaging to archaeology and the environment. Stonehenge Alliance supporters include: The Council for the Protection of Rural England, Friends of the Earth,RESCUE: The British Archaeological Trust, Save our Sacred Sites, and Transport 2000.

2. A members' motion, asking the National Trust to reconsider its position on the Stonehenge road scheme, will be introduced at the Trust's AGM on 27 October 2001.

3. Article 4 of the Convention reads:

'Each State Party to this Convention recognises that the duty of ensuring
the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission
to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage [of World
Heritage Sites] situated on its territory belongs primarily to that State. It
will do all it can to this end, to the utmost of its own resources and, where
appropriate, with any international assistance and co-operation, in
particular, financial, artistic, scientific and technical, which it may be able
to obtain.'

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust