New £1.7bn UK tunnel ‘too short’ and ‘won’t stop chaos’ | UK | News

Efforts by the British government to dig a tunnel under Stonehenge go all the way back to the coalition government.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told the journalists who descended on Wiltshire in 2014 he was promising money and legislation to “unblock the bottlenecks” like the one beside the famous landmark.  

“Anyone who has travelled on the A303 will know what I’m talking about,” the ex-Lib Dem leader added.

Although the commitment from the numerous different governments in the years which followed has rarely wavered little progress has been made.

The reason is simple; there are a large enough number of people who believe the plans are fundamentally flawed and have fought them every step of the way.

One of those is the chairman of The Stonehenge Alliance, John Adams, who points out that the plan to reduce congestion by adding four lanes of traffic under the famous stones has a fairly substantial problem.

“Two-and-a-half miles down the road you’re going to hit another single carriageway section,” he told the Express. 

“In fact, the National Audit Office wrote in 2019 that the government’s objectives at Stonehenge are unlikely to be realised until all sections of the A303 have been made into dual carriageway [which there are currently no plans for]. So it doesn’t make sense.”

David Bullock, National Highways’ Project Director for the A303 Stonehenge scheme, hit back at these claims, however.

He said: “The Government has committed to upgrade the entire A303 corridor to a high-quality dual-carriageway as part of its strategic aim of improving connectivity to the South West.

“As part of that commitment, National Highways is currently dualling three miles of the A303 between Sparkford and Ilchester and plans to dual eight miles of the A303 between Amesbury and Berwick Down, including a twin-bored tunnel of two miles.”

Adams’s and The Stonehenge Alliance’s issues with the mega-project go far beyond the suggestion there is not enough dual carriageway, however.

“The tunnel is going to be about 3.3km long, but [the section which] crosses the Stonehenge World Heritage site is 5.4km wide,” the campaigner added. 

“So to get into the tunnel and to come out of the tunnel there’ll be long deep cuttings leading to the tunnel portals, a kilometre long each. 

“At the western end it will be as wide as a football field and as deep as a two-storey house. So a massive great gouge right through the World Heritage site.”

Misgivings about the length of the tunnel aren’t just restricted to campaign groups like Adams’s. UNESCO – the international body which determines whether an area is given the sought after title of World Heritage site – has warned it may remove Stonehenge’s status if it feels the project does not take adequate consideration of the need to preserve this wonder of the ancient world.

“There have only ever been three World Heritage sites delisted anywhere in the world and one of those was in England, in Liverpool [at its Victorian docks],” Mr Adams said.

“If we have the second one at Stonehenge that looks pretty bad. I think it’s shameful [and] humiliating for the government if 50% of all World Heritage sites ever delisted were in the UK. 

“I mean if we heard that the Egyptian government was going to build a bypass or tunnel under the Pyramids we’d be horrified and, yet, that’s what the government’s proposing to do here.”

In response National Highways said it had « been engaging with UNESCO about the extensive benefits the A303 scheme at Stonehenge would deliver for the World Heritage Site, removing the sight and sound of traffic from much of the Stonehenge landscape and reuniting the currently severed northern and southern parts of the site ».

The organisation added that « since the WHS was inscribed, traffic on the A303 has more than doubled (170%), with an extra 17,000 vehicles travelling past Stonehenge through the WHS every single day. And this is predicted to get worse, if nothing is done ». 

Mr Adams argues the economic case for building the tunnel is flimsy especially with construction costs estimated to run as high as £1.7 billion. 

“It certainly doesn’t make sense from an economic point of view,” he claimed.  

“National Highways Agency thinks that it’s going to cost £9 million a year every year for the next 60 years just to maintain the tunnel. Stonehenge is a rural location in Wiltshire, which is a pretty rural county in the middle of the countryside.

“[The argument] it will enhance growth in the south west of England I personally think is highly dubious.” 

The campaign group chair is convinced the government is backing the scheme not on the basis of merit but because the battle to try and clear planning approval – which has descended into a lengthy legal dispute between opponents and the state – has required a huge amount of effort.

“I guess because they’ve invested so much time and energy, it’s almost become like a Tory trophy,” he said.

“I mean, David Cameron and Nick Clegg kicked this off years ago as part of the coalition and they just will not let it go.”

National Highways Project Director Mr Bullock disagrees.

“We remain confident this scheme is the best solution for tackling a long-standing traffic bottleneck, improving journeys, bringing much-needed relief to local communities and boosting the economy in the South West, while conserving and enhancing the World Heritage Site,” he said.

The Stonehenge Alliance has been the main organisation fighting the government’s attempts to tunnel under the historic structure and has crowdfunded a series of legal challenges, which has slowed its progress.

Mr Adams says small donations have flowed from all over the world and he believes this is testament to the level of opposition that exists.

“It’s a David and Goliath fight, the little man against National Highways and Department for Transport,” he added. 

“They’ve got all the resources of the government at their disposal and we have to fundraise to bring these legal claims.” 

However, in February campaigners were dealt a major blow when a High Court judge found in the government’s favour.

Not that Mr Adams or his supporters are giving up any time soon.

“We’re going to carry on fighting it,” he said. “We’re not giving up. We’ve come this far and we’re opposed to the road, we’ll always be opposed to that road.”

However, on the other side of the argument The Stonehenge Alliance’s adversary is equally determined.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said it could not comment on the ongoing legal dispute but added it “continues to work with heritage groups to conserve the site”.