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In England there are plans to build a new motorway tunnel. But that tunnel could endanger the iconic monument Stonehenge, campaigners say. And then it might lose its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Tuesday, December 12, 2023 at 9:01 PM
The British government plans to cover several kilometers of the A303. A tunnel would have to be built for that. And that tunnel would go straight through the site, where the iconic Stonehenge is located. The organization Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site (SSWHS) is now trying to put a stop to this.
According to them, the plan would partly “destroy” the site and the damage would be “permanent and irreversible”. The campaigners have therefore gone to the High Court in the hope of thwarting the plans.
According to the organization, building the tunnel would mean that Stonehenge could be removed from the World Heritage List “and that is a direct result of a government decision,” it said.
According to the Department of Transport, this is not correct. “The World Heritage Site has not been delisted and there is no indication that it will be delisted if the… scheme goes ahead,” they said.
The organization behind Stonehenge therefore saw no other options than to take legal action. They are now organizing a crowdfunding campaign to pay the legal costs. “It’s really David versus Goliath.”
The government wants to build the tunnel, the plans for which were approved in July after an earlier legal process, because it could drastically reduce traffic jams in the region. Although the campaigners do not agree with this. According to them, travel times would speed up “only by a few minutes” and they therefore call it a “poor use of public funds.” “We want National Highways to explore alternatives that actually divert the road away from the World Heritage site.”
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The petition against the tunnel has now been signed more than 230,000 times. UNESCO also announced that the plans should not be continued “without the necessary adjustments.”
The tunnel project leader said they will participate in the legal process, but they are still convinced that this plan is the best solution. Preparatory work will continue until a final decision is made.