On the 17th of July 2020, the UK government once again delayed plans to reach a decision to instigate a road tunnel plan designed to ease traffic congestion along the existing stretch of the A303 between Amesbury and Berwick Down. 50yrs in the making, this outdated controversial road scheme designed to cut and widen through the heart of the Stonehenge landscape is nothing short of vandalism, and one that will leave a damaging scar not only within a sacred ritual landscape, but in the memory of our ancestors, and generations that follow.

I am therefore calling on the public to mount additional pressure on the transport secretary Grant Shapps, to finalise and abolish the Stonehenge tunnel plan on the 13th of November 2020, and recognise it as a forbidden project that is in breach of the World Heritage Convention.

We must come together and fight to protect this irreplaceable, archaeological rich World Heritage Site, leaving it unscathed for reasons that follow.

1. In the grand scheme of things, the tunnel is in fact 1 of 8 individual road investment strategies due to take place over the next 14yrs, to upgrade the entire A303/A358 dual carriageway corridor that interlinks the M3 in the SE to the M5 in the SW. The road package designed to cut congestion in the South West, is a scheme of road building development on a massive scale through one of Europe's most archaeological sensitive ritual landscape, and one that is most celebrated globally.

Think outside the tunnel, if you weren't aware before, the development scheme is also part of a £27 billion road building "Masterplan" in a first budget speech from the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, who is said to be pressing ahead with the road building programme over the next 5yrs, with plans to introduce A road upgrades across the UK into "Expressways" (motorway-lite), not seen in the UK prior to 2020.

The Department for Transport has said the A303 will become a 2 tunnel, 4 lane "Expressway", originally spanning 2.9km long, but has since been extended to 3.3km in order to avoid width further extending into the archaeological rich landscape.

"Expressways" are designed to operate on par with smart motorways that will include junctions, described as an "Expressway interchange", and "Expressway flyovers" with plans for one to commence at the A303 Countess roundabout, an example of what is to come on the Stonehenge site boundaries. The visual impact of the area will become evermore unsightly as a result, and one that many unsuspecting people of the British public have little knowledge of.

2. The National Audit Office has previously cast doubt on the project and stated a low value benefit to cost ratio than is usual in road schemes, producing little return from the £1.6 to £2.4bn budget, with only 30p out of every £1 gained from spending. Cultural heritage value was initially insignificant in the tunnels budget forecast, and was therefore not included. Since gaining the support of English heritage for the tunnel plans to go ahead, Monetary value was later added to help increase financial gain, with an expected increase of £1.15p return for every £1 spent, still a significantly low value not including costs that are expected to increase by 40% as the project continues to roll out over time, which is often the case with building projects, producing an even lower or negative value to come. 

A £2bn spend, and an unprecedented cost to our heritage landscape in order to save approximately 8 minutes of journey time too, it's time this ludicrous scheme got thrown out of the court so to speak!

3. The future prediction of lesser car use and more people working from home as a result of societal changes during the pandemic, simply doesn't advocate grand scale spending costs. In light of the pandemic, there is also an increased need to encourage less car use, and instead invest money to create much needed greener projects for the sake of future environmental health, and the health of the nation that will encourage better lifestyles, since the need for more roads have come into question since the pandemic.

According to the Council for British Archaeology, growing bodies of research show that behaviour habits of car drivers are predicted to change, and the need for radical approaches to transport policy to include a long term strategy to encourage a shift away from car dependence, may in fact provide better longer term sustainability than any road building solution or improvement.

If anything, going ahead with the tunnel scheme will encourage further car dependence, that will contribute to elevating levels of congestion and will continue to increase in future.

In the current climate, the economic hit as a result of Covid 19 means a need to cut costs should come into the transport secretary's decision to scrap the improvement scheme, by acknowledging unforeseen circumstances we are experiencing today, changing the way in which money alt to be invested going forward.

4. It has been stated by numerous campaigners and heritage groups that the "Outstanding Universal Value" of the WHS will be adversely affected should the tunnel go ahead, being one of few places where you can see an ancient landscape developed over thousands of years. Desecrating it in the name of easing traffic congestion would cause a shockwave outside of Britain, with the world watching us ultimately destroy our own sacred landscape and unique heritage.

In terms of strategic landscape value, road lighting, and worryingly vehicle headlights could perpetually obscure a solstice alignment view, one that has been designed, and positioned to have an inter-relationship with surrounding sites and monuments, which came as a result of a highly organised prehistoric society who were capable of interpreting, and working within their environmental concepts, providing sight-lines that UNESCO have emphasized should be protected from any building.

5. In light of the most recent major archaeological discoveries in the Stonehenge landscape that delayed Grant Shapp's decision back in July to give the green light, this is evident reason enough not to pursue the "historically illiterate" road plan on November 13th. Coupled with zero financial value, unsustainability, the increased need for greener projects, unsightly visual impacts that will devalue the site and surrounding landscape, the potential for large scale undiscovered archaeological damage, and economic downturn post pandemic, the list is endless.

We the public must fight the right to preserve our national heritage, and not set the tone for other major projects to partake in similar sensitive environments should this tunnel mindlessly go ahead.

Act now if you value and care about preserving what rightly belongs to us all by signing the petition and sharing it across social media sites. We must stress to the transport minister that the time has come to reach a final decision once and for all, in the interest of the aforementioned above, and facts based on the current climate moving forward, and not based on outdated historical predictions.