h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am writing to engage your support in the campaign against the draft A303 Trunk Road (Stonehenge Improvement) order on the following grounds:

1. The proposed highway scheme would cause considerable environmental damage to the Stonehenge World Heritage Site and the archaeologically and environmentally important surrounding area. According to the Stonehenge Management Plan, prepared for UNESCO: "The Stonehenge World Heritage Site is internationally recognized as an outstanding archaeological landscape. Inscription on the World Heritage List places Stonehenge, with Avebury and its associated sites, beside other World Heritage Sites of outstanding universal value such as the Pyramids in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and the Great Wall of China." As people would not accept building a new four-lane highway through the middle of the Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, or the Great Wall of China; we should not accept this at Stonehenge either.

2. The proposed highway would have negative impacts on the internationally important rivers Till and Avon, noise impacts on Stonehenge and local communities, and a number of other adverse environmental impacts that the Highways Agency's plans do not properly consider or address.

3. The proposed highway would be over twice as wide as the existing one. This would encourage traffic growth (part of the reason for its proposal is the Government’s intention to relieve congestion on the M4 and other London to South-West routes), causing knock-on safety problems elsewhere along the A303 route and in neighbouring communities.

4. The proposed highway contravenes a number of important policies and plans, most notably the Stonehenge World Heritage Site Management Plan, but also planning policy guidance notes.

5. The plan is opposed by the Council for the Protection of Rural England and the National Trust.

6. A variety of alternative plans for Stonehenge have not been explored, publicized, or costed out. I believe it is contrary to European environmental law to pursue the current highway scheme before other alternatives have been properly considered.

7. The proposed cost is conservatively estimated by the Government at £200 million. If the plan is opposed on the ground, by the expected thousands of protestors, this cost will double at least.

8. The project involves ploughing an 80m wide, 40m deep, 2.1 km long trench across the world heritage site, laying a four-lane tunnel into it and then covering it over. This will take several years and cause immense disruption to the local environment, not to mention the sensitive archaeology of the area.

9. The site is also becoming recognised as a centre for celebration and worship by the UK’s growing pagan community. It, and the ancient landscape around it, is seen as sacred land and should not, therefore, be desecrated by the proposed scheme. To ignore this could be seen as religious discrimination, after all would you build a four-lane highway through the grounds of Salisbury Cathedral? There is a significant commitement within the pagan community to oppose this plan by any and all means possible.

10. Amongst the Druid Groups opposed to the plan are; the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids; the British Druid Order; the Albion Conclave; The Loyal Arthurian Warband; and many others. These represent many thousands of members across Britain and indeed, the world, all of whom regard Stonehenge as a sacred temple.

I would be grateful if you would put this case, in your own words and based upon your own research to your local MP.

We know that the Government is holding a public inquiry into the plan, at which objections will be discussed. However, we seriously doubt that, given their history, the many realistic alternatives will be explored in any detail.

Thanks,
Matholwch /|\.

I'm surprised no-one else has commented. I shall do my bit ... if I remember. I don't write to my MP every day.

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Matholwch,

Thanks for bringing the present plight of Stonehenge to our attention. I share your concern about the negative effect that the proposed plans for the A303 will have on the World Heritage Site. However, I do have some small disagreements with your posting.

>2. .....noise impacts on Stonehenge....

I believe that the current proposal will have a positive effect on the background noise at Stonehenge. The A303 will be removed from the surface and put underground and the A344, which passes within a few feet of the Heel Stone, will be closed.

>6. A variety of alternative plans for Stonehenge have not been explored, publicized, or costed out.

I don't think that this statement is true. Alternative plans have been considered and their routes have been published. These alternative routes will come under scrutiny at the public inquiry currently taking place.

>8. The project involves ploughing an 80m wide, 40m deep, 2.1 km long trench across the world heritage site.....

Not true. The plan for a "cut and cover" tunnel has been dropped in favour of a bored tunnel.

If a tunnel is to be bored, then it must be much longer, to remove all through-traffic from Stonehenge and its associated monuments. However, I think that there are safety implications which should be fully explored in such a plan. Although I am generally opposed to new trunk roads being ploughed through our countryside, Stonehenge is a very special case. I would prefer to see a new road built to the south, and outside, of the World Heritage Site.

Writing to one's MP can do no harm; however, I can't see what good it can do, now, with the public inquiry in full swing.


stoneageman

Hi Stonehengeman

The noise impact will come from the 6-7 years of heavy work in the immediate vicinity.

No firm decision has been made regarding a bored tunnel, as it stands the Guv'mint is still in favour of the cheaper, cut and cover option.

Writing to one's MP during an inquiry is vital. We have to ensure that the guv'mint knows of the depth and breadth of the concern about their plans so that they don't try to skew the inquiry (and yes they would and have done this before).

As a druid I am trying to achieve a peaceful settlement to this issue. if the government just try to plough through Stonehenge World Heritage Site there will be the biggest set of road protests that Europe has ever seen, and people will get hurt. Both the police and the protesters have already begun laying supplies and briefing solictors ready for the fray.

Remember the first Battle of Stonehenge? 108 injured, 3 critically, including a policeman. And that was just over access at Solstice. Imagine the bloodbath if hundreds of militant pagans descend on the site to defend their religious heart. I shudder at that thought.

Myself and a few others are already planning to act as a human shield for the police and the protestors.

Of course the best solution is to get an amicable settlement now that prevents all this. So write to your MP and make him aware of the issues because you can be sure that some of his constituents will be there for the second Battle of Stonehenge.

Peaceful hopes,
Matholwch /|\.

Matholwch:

>No firm decision has been made regarding a bored tunnel, as it stands the Guv'mint is still in favour of the cheaper, cut and cover option.

Yes, you are correct in stating that no firm decision has been made regarding a bored tunnel, but that's because no firm decision has been made about any of the proposals. That's what the public inquiry is for. However, the Highways Agency has conceded that a bored tunnel is the preferred option.

"For years, an argument also raged about the tunnelling method, with the Highways Agency refusing to contemplate a bored tunnel on cost grounds, while archaeologists abhorred the alternative of a cut-and-cover tunnel. A bored tunnel has now been accepted as being preferable.

The above quotation is taken from here:

http://society.guardian.co.uk/environment/story/0,14124,1137890,00.html

>Writing to one's MP during an inquiry is vital.

Although I have no wish to dissuade anyone from writing to their M.P. about anything which may concern them, no M.P. can have any influence over a public inquiry unless they are appearing at the inquiry. That's one of the points of having a public inquiry: all interested parties are free to make their submissions to it and attend in order to present their argument.



stoneageman

Matholwch,

I've found the Highways Agency's statement which has been submitted to the public inquiry This is their proposal for the tunnel:

"From Longbarrow Crossroads the route would run mainly in cutting parallel to and on the south side of the existing road for approximately 1.5km before heading into tunnel. The (twin-bored) tunnel would run to the south of the existing road in a gentle curve for a distance of 2.1km before emerging east of King Barrow Ridge. Both east and west tunnel portals would be out of sight of Stonehenge. No surface works would be needed for the tunnel over this length, except in Stonehenge Bottom where some construction would be carried out from ground level. After completion of the works, Stonehenge Bottom would be reinstated and the existing A303 causeway restored to historic turnpike levels."

http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/a_roads/a303/stonehenge/statement_of_case/03.htm

I don't agree that that's the best option, I'm just reporting it.


stoneageman

Thanks for digging that out, I stand corrected

Matholwch,

What do you think should happen to resolve the problem of the roads that encroach onto the integrity of Stonehenge and its landscape?

Do you know if any Druids' representatives will be putting forward any alternative plans at the inquiry?

Something is going to happen. The A303 has been identified as a preferred alternative route from London to the West Country and will become a dual carriageway for its entire length.


stoneageman

I've found the Druids' submissions to the inquiry, they're on both the Druids Network and British Druid Order's websites.

http://www.druidorder.demon.co.uk/stonehenge2004.htm

In my opinion, they are very poor submissions, mainly concerned with the re-burial of any human remains found. No alternative to the tunnel is proposed.

There is a very weak argument for extending the tunnel by 600 metres to the west. No proposal is made to extend the tunnel to the east, thus freeing The Avenue from any further disturbance and allowing us to walk along The Avenue in its entirety.


stoneageman

Hi Stoneageman

I agree. I have just finished reading the entire transcript of the BDO/TDN submission to the Inquiry and I am very disappointed.

My own opinion is that as this site is so archaeologically important and sensitive they should take up all the present roads amd redirect the A303 around the perimeter of the site altogether.

Never mind the sacred nature of the land in the view of a growing number of British and foreign people.

Personally I do not like Stonehenge that much. I am very much a feral druid and tend to practive my spirituality privately in the woods near my home. The henges have never had a great appeal for me.

My greatest worry is that this will all get hyped up so far that the site will become a bloodbath. I saw the riots in the mid-eighties and they were just about access. Many druids are preparing themselves to try and bring peace and order to any protests that occur and to try and keep the hooligan elements of both the protest movement and the police at bay.

This is why the inquiry is so important. If the Government is ssen to ride roughshod over its findings then the battle will happen.

We live in interesting times.

Blessings,
Matholwch /|\.