Stonehenge tunnel campaigners vow to keep fighting

Stonehenge is one of the world's most famous prehistoric monuments

Campaigners have vowed to continue their fight against a proposed road tunnel on the A303 near Stonehenge.

Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site's (SSWHS) latest High Court appeal was dismissed on Monday.

In September, the UN cultural body Unesco urged the government to alter the plans, citing concerns over the site's heritage status.

The tunnel will tackle a "long-standing traffic bottleneck" in Wiltshire, the government has said.

The High Court quashed the tunnel plans in 2021 over environmental concerns, but the Department for Transport (DfT) approved it again on 14 July 2023.

In December, SSWHS brought a second bid to the High Court to challenge the decision to construct a two-mile (3.2km) tunnel from Amesbury to Berwick Down.

It is hoped the tunnel will reduce traffic, noise pollution and cut journey times on the A303

Chris Todd, one of the directors of SSWHS, said: "If we walk away from this now then potentially Unseco will put the site on the World Heritage endangered list and remove its status in the longer term.

"If this scheme goes ahead, that's what they're likely to do because of the huge damage it [the tunnel] will cause.

"We will not be giving up on this fight," he added.

In September, leading members of the campaign group took a petition to the Unesco headquarters in Paris.

It gained 225,000 signatures from 147 countries, urging the government to halt plans for the "damaging" road scheme.

Campaigners are concerned about the impact the scheme will have on the ancient monument

But some residents living close to Stonehenge have welcomed the plans, citing issues with noise pollution and traffic jams.

"We're a very small village and a national arterial road goes straight through the middle," said Winterbourne Stoke Parish Councillor, Peter Smith.

According to National Highways, approximately 26,500 vehicles a day travel on the A303 past Stonehenge at peak times.

"To get from here to Amesbury - which is only five miles away - can take up to an hour at peak times," Mr Smith added.

"For those people who live right on the road here, it'd make a huge difference."

There is often a build-up of traffic near the monument

David Bullock from National Highways said: "It's a fantastic situation to be in to get the High Court judgement.

"It marks another huge step forward in terms of delivering this project for us that has been decades in the making.

"We are a big step forward."

National Highways expects construction of the tunnel to begin in 2025.