Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site

Stonehenge is full of prehistoric monuments, some are the same date as Stonehenge, some of them older and some are more recent.  The World Heritage Site is a designation of an entire landscape that the Stonehenge Alliance wants to see protected for the very long term.  

The Government’s scrapping of its damaging proposal to widen the A303 road across the iconic WHS is a triumph for common sense and our long campaign. BUT the road scheme was cancelled on grounds of affordability.  What if it were to become affordable in years to come?  

Until the WHS is properly protected under UK planning law it is not secure from further damage. 

We are progressing two projects to protect the Stonehenge landscape:

⇒ To raise the status of World Heritage Sites in the UK which currently have a weak status in planning law.  It will require firm parliamentary action.   Action has been taken but it needs to go much further.  READ MORE >

⇒ To promote alternative investment to massive roadbuilding which must include urgent upgrading of the inadequate railway track to the south west.  READ MORE>  

Time to debate the way forward?

Stonehenge could be a world leader in best practice in low carbon solutions and demand management for World Heritage Sites and other protected landscapes. 

Now is the time for Wiltshire Council (the Highways Authority) to initiate an inclusive, informed, debate about addressing the traffic problems experienced by people living around Stonehenge. 

We do not put ourselves forward as advocates of any specific intervention, although we do advocate the sustainable transport measures that would be more fitting for the 21st century than gouging a concrete trench and tunnel through a prehistoric “landscape without parallel”. 

Measures could include: 

• Installing heavy traffic management measures through local villages, monitored for impacts on local communities
• Trialling intelligent traffic light system between the two roundabouts between Longbarrow and Countess actively monitored for traffic flow
• Addressing the problem of ‘rubber necking’ near Stonehenge bottom by piloting low-speeds
• Laying ultra-quiet surfacing to reduce intrusive road noise
• Piloting innovative methods to discourage peak tourist travel times including a local road charging that could generate green travel funds for connecting shuttle buses
• Reviewing the road layout to avoid the constriction where two lanes merge;
• Investing in rail access to the south west along the lines proposed by the south west peninsular task force;
• Reclaiming an inclusive solution which enhances free public access and enjoyment of the monument on foot, by bicycle and local bus for all.

10 sound reasons why we were against the A303 road scheme >

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