Courts agree to new Stonehenge Tunnel appeal

Wednesday, 22 May 2024 01:00

A group campaigning against the A303 Stonehenge Tunnel has been granted the right to appeal the decision to allow the project to proceed.

The judgement earlier in the year followed a three-day hearing at the High Court in December with UNESCO, five planning inspectors, and over 236,000 people opposed to the plans.

John Adams, chair of the Stonehenge Alliance [7] and one of the 3 directors of SSWHS, said: “This is extremely good news. All those who care passionately about our cultural heritage can breathe a sigh of relief. We now have a new opportunity for the Government decision to be thoroughly scrutinised.

“This road scheme would be incredibly damaging to Stonehenge World Heritage Site. Yet, the Government doesn’t seem to care and is desperately trying to bulldoze through this decision before it is thrown out of office.”

Leigh Day solicitor Rowan Smith said: “This news is very encouraging for our client. In granting permission to appeal, the Court of Appeal acknowledged the scale of public interest around ensuring that a decision about the future of Stonehenge is lawful.

“The Court said there is a compelling reason for an appeal hearing. Our client is looking forward to presenting arguments about the fairness of the decision-making process relating to the future of Stonehenge as well as compliance with international law protecting the World Heritage Site.”

SSWHS now has to raise a further £34,000 for the Appeal Court hearing.

Some work connected with the project has already begun, with the A360 currently closed until mid-July as high-voltage electricity cables are installed in preparation for the bigger works.

Alongside the tunnel, there are also plans to install a flyover at Countess Roundabout and a bypass for Winterbourne Stoke.

National Highways, who are in charge of the project said, "We are hugely disappointed by this decision, which will cause more delays to this scheme as the next stage of the legal process unfolds.

"We will participate fully in any future legal proceedings, working closely with DfT.

"We still have our Development Consent Order (DCO) in place and the scheme isn’t cancelled. But this extra legal process will delay the start of our preliminary works and we’ll need to adjust the whole main works programme accordingly."