In July (2023) the UK government gave its consent to a £1.7 bn scheme to dual the A303 across the Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS), with twin-bore tunnels, their portals well within the boundaries of the UNESCO-designated site. * * * * In 2020 a committee in Wales published detailed proposals for addressing traffic congestion, as an… Continue reading
Posts tagged Stonehenge
Brits love buses, but you’ll wait forever for one on the A303
Whose £2.5 billion tunnel and dual carriageway past Stonehenge is the A303 anyway? A public road (no tolls), funded by the public. Will it have that other ‘public’ thing? Public transport? After all, the A303 ‘improvements’ are designed to make life easier for motorists, all motorists. Car drivers, lorry and van drivers, even military vehicles –… Continue reading →
Is it time to ‘prioritise mass transport over the easy mobility of driving’?
In a leader (July 7, 2023) The Guardian concluded that the future of ‘mobility’ must involve much more than private cars. It said that the climate crisis should be a chance ‘to question whether the motorcar itself has become too embedded in our everyday lives. We must prioritise mass transport over easy mobility of driving.’… Continue reading →
Celebrate Stonehenge’s saviours, but don’t ignore the bigger story
100 years today (26 October 1918) Cecil Chubb, a Wiltshire barrister and landowner, and his wife, Mary, gave Stonehenge to the nation. Saving the monument from who knows what damage and desecration to the stones and the surrounding land is a public spirited gesture to be celebrated. But even under government control, Stonehenge is not… Continue reading →
Go-ahead for controversial Stonehenge road tunnel
Update – February 12th, 2018. Letter to the Guardian today. You highlight (Stonehenge tunnel: plans for £1.6bn scheme published, 8 February) Highways England’s misguided belief that the scheme will restore a sense of beauty and tranquillity to the ancient landscape around Stonehenge. Despite the small changes made to the scheme, it will still cause irrevocable damage to a… Continue reading →
Salisbury’s perfect year as world’s top 10 city
Lonely Planet has chosen Salisbury as one of its top 10 cities of the world to visit in 2015. The city celebrates the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta in 2015 – the cathedral will be displaying its copy, considered to be the best of the original documents. It’s less than a year since the new… Continue reading →