Representation by International Council on Monuments and Sites UK (ICOMOS-UK) (International Council on Monuments and Sites UK (ICOMOS-UK))
- Date submitted
- 10 January 2019
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Stonehenge A303 Planning Inspectorate Reference: TR010025
ICOMOS-UK wishes to register as an Interested Party for the Examination of the above application for development.
ICOMOS-UK is concerned that the A303 development proposal as it stands may impact adversely and potentially irreversibly on the attributes of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the World Heritage site (WHS) of Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated sites.
We support in principle the idea of a tunnel for the A303 and seek to advocate that the tunnel be long enough to ensure that its tunnel portals, associated approach roads and cuttings do not impact adversely on the OUV of the WHS, but do not consider that this parameter has been fully satisfied.
We wish to comment on why we consider that the development proposal impacts adversely on the OUV of the WHS, in particular on the following:
• The potential impact of the current proposals on the overall integrated Stonehenge prehistoric, archaeological landscape and thus on the OUV of the WHS;
• The reasons why the benefits of the development proposal within a part of a WHS, however great, cannot compensate for loss to the attributes of OUV resulting from the proposal elsewhere in the WHS;
• The obligations of the World Heritage Convention;
• The recent decisions of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee on the Stonehenge proposals and the reports of the ICOMOS Advisory Missions.