Villagers 'back to square one' as tunnel cancelled

Steve Mackie said drivers will not let people pull out onto the A303

Residents of a traffic-blighted village close to where a now-cancelled tunnel would have been constructed near Stonehenge say they are "back to square one".

The two-mile tunnel, which would have cost £2bn, was cancelled by the government after a spending review.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Commons last week that Transport Secretary had agreed not to "move forward" with the project.

Resident Sharon Paterson, who has lived in Shrewton for 27 years, said there were now "a limited number of options for getting anywhere from this village".

Sharon Paterson said villagers were back to square one

Planning permission for the tunnel, which was backed by Wiltshire Council and involved overhauling eight miles (12.8km) of the A303, was first approved in November 2020 - despite Planning Inspectorate officials saying it would cause "permanent, irreversible harm" to the area.

However, National Highways said the tunnel would have reduced journey times, eased traffic problems and removed the road from the view of the landscape.

The plan has been controversial with locals spilt on the issue and there has been international interest, with UNESCO raising concerns about the World Heritage Site.

Ms Paterson added living in Shrewton was a strange experience with villagers able to leave easily one way - but not another.

Residents say the main road through Shrewton can get congested

"It is like being in the Bermuda Triangle, because if you want to go shopping somewhere it's probably easier to go to Warminster than it is to go east to Amesbury and Salisbury," she said.

"Salisbury would be a very good place to go, other than the fact it's very hard to cross the A303 now."

Another resident, Helen Woods, who has lived in Shrewton most of her life, said the traffic has "easily" got "10 times" worse in her time there.

"As locals we had a few rat runs which the public didn't know about, but now they've closed them we're all pushed onto the A303."

She added that traffic often goes "a mile out of the village".

"And sometimes it's another mile after that. So it could be two miles."

A tunnel would have seen the A303 buried underground with no view of the stones from the road

Shrewton taxi driver Steve Mackie said the traffic can get "very bad".

He blamed sat navs with live traffic information for diverting cars through villages.

He said in heavy traffic it was difficult to cross the A303 as drivers "won't give in" for fear of "losing their place" in the queue.

"I can't understand the mentality of them.

"Rather than let people through and free the traffic, they get so jealous and possessive and stressed out.

"It's just a joke, really. Something needs doing."

'People feel besieged'

Campaigner John Adams, from Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site, said: "We think that all the agencies involved should get together and look at other intelligent alternatives.

"Not necessarily a whole road scheme, but there are things that could be done at both ends of the World Heritage Site and to stop rat-running through local villages."

Paul McKernan, a Shrewton parish councillor of Shrewton, told the BBC: "We routinely have traffic at a complete standstill through these very narrow roads as people's sat navs take them away from the A303.

"We don't even need an accident or a blockage now. The impact for the villages is that they can't use the high street - much of it doesn't have pavements.

"People tend to feel besieged. It's getting worse."