Representation by Chris Lowe
- Date submitted
- 10 January 2019
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I and my family have visited Stonehenge many times since I was a boy living in Dorset some 60 years ago, so I have a personal interest in trying to improve the local area to achieve a better experience for visitors.
If helpful to you I could probably find photos from some of those visits.
When I first visited Stonehenge one could walk around the stones, and of course there was comparatively little traffic.
The situation became worse over the decades, but some of the decline was arrested and improved with the new Visitor Centre and removal of the fence between the viewing pathway and the stones, but of course the A303 traffic has now become horrendous.
So my concerns about the Highways England proposals are that it does not do enough to improve the situation and does not restore the stones to their former glory and tanquillity.
I consider that the proposals risk: Permanent damage to the World Heritage Site, its archaeology and setting. Damage to Blick Mead Mesolithic site and its setting. Loss of view from the road and need to pay to see the Stones. Disturbance of rare bird species (Stone Curlew and Great Bustard). increased noise and visual intrusion from more and faster traffic.
The Highways England did not offer alternative options that would not damage the World Heritage Site in the consultation - which is a key requirement of Environmental Impact Assessments.
It is well known that building or improving roads creates more traffic because of 'Induced traffic" effects. CPRE's 2017 report - The end of the road? Challenging the road-building consensus - has now found the most comprehensive evidence to date that building new roads is not the solution. The new research shows that road schemes:
generate more traffic – often far above background trends over the longer term
lead to permanent and significant environmental and landscape damage
show little evidence of economic benefit to local economies
See: www.cpre.org.uk/what-we-do/transport/roads
So new thinking is needed, and not the tired old repitition of the "more roads" mantra.
Highways England claims that: "Through the operation, maintenance and improvement of its roads, Highways England’s aspiration is: ‘a strategic road network working more harmoniously with its surroundings to deliver an improved environment.’" (www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-england-environment-strategy). Clearly this proposal does not meet that aspiration, nor does it meet the Government's 25 year Environment Strategy which aims to create a better environment than we currently have.
Finally, UNESCO's advisers say the scheme should not go ahead in its present form, so the Applicant must go back and reconsider options that would avoid all these apects.
Thank you