Stonehenge: The saga continues

Abstract

Parts of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site have been described as a ‘national disgrace’. 1 This paper gives an account of the many proposals over the last decade to improve the state of the site and, at the same time, to provide for the dualling of the A303, an important road into southwest England. Although there was an informed consensus in 1995 that only a ‘long bored tunnel’ could provide a satisfactory outcome, 2 since 1997 the Government has claimed such a tunnel would be ‘unaffordable and uneconomic’. 3 It has declared in favour of twin tunnels, cut-and-covered, within a few tens of metres of the Henge, with their cuttings and portals at each end, extra ‘landscaping’, and some kilometres of new dual carriageway, all within the World Heritage Site landscape. Wide- spread and informed objection continues. © 2000, Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.