Representation by Amesbury Museum and Heritage Trust (Amesbury Museum and Heritage Trust)
- Date submitted
- 11 January 2019
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Submission by Amesbury Museum and Heritage Trust
I write in my capacity as chairman of the board of trustees of the Amesbury Museum and Heritage Trust, a charity whose objects include “the preservation of building or sites of historical or architectural importance”. The charitable trust operates within the landscape in which Stonehenge and the World Heritage Site sits, and within the strict guidance and rules of the Charity Commission.
The Trust wishes to register its interest in this application and wishes to attend any hearing and put its case at every opportunity.
The Trust has a number of concerns about information relayed to the public within the consultation periods.
The Trust has concerns about the management of the schedule planned for public meetings with UNESCO and ICOMOS representatives.
The Trust has concerns about the scheme, in that any application to alter the landscape, build on, or utilise the land gifted to facilitate such major infrastructure scheme must be with the public consent and in the public interest in accordance with restricted covenant’s made in the gift of Stonehenge (referring the conveyance of the sale of the land to the Chubb’s in 1915). The Trust considers that an alternative solution to the proposed tunnel exists, being a southern bypass and that this has not been offered as an alternative at consultation. The Trust remains very concerned about the adverse impact the tunnel portals and infrastructure will have on the archaeologically rich landscape. The Trust has concerns about Highways England’s surveys at Blick Mead and land at the western end of the World Heritage Site . The Trust has concerns in relation to the Habitats Directive. The Trust is concerned that the scheme infringes the spirit in which Stonehenge was gifted to the nation by the Chubb family in 1918. The Trust believes that having been stipulated in the conditions imposed by Cecil and Mary Chubb in their Deed of Gift to the nation 26 October 1918 that:
- First that the public shall have free access to the premises hereby conveyed and Every part thereof on the payment of such reasonable sum per head not exceeding one shilling for each visit and subject to such conditions as the Commissioners of Works in the exercise and execution of their statutory powers and duties may from time to time impose
- Secondly that the premises shall so far as possible maintained in their present condition
- Thirdly that no building or erection other than a pay box similar to the Pay Box now standing on the premises shall be erected on any part of the premises within four hundred yards of The Milestone marked “Amesbury 2” on the northern frontage of the premises There is clearly an intent and expectation by the Chubb’s that the then existing public’s free view of the monument from the main road would be maintained in that present condition. The above points will be developed further in written submissions.