Image: Stonehenge (Nik /Unsplash)
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the project would be shelved as part of cost-saving measures
The government has scrapped a project to expand a road near Stonehenge and create a tunnel near the heritage site as part of measures to reduce public spending.
As part of cost saving measures in the billions, new Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the Transport Secretary has agreed not to “move forward” with the project. “If we cannot afford it, we cannot do it”, she said in the Commons.
Brought in under the Conservative government, the project had been designed to address traffic in the area, replacing the current A303 single carriageway, which runs past Stonehenge, with a dual-carriageway.
The road would have included a two-mile tunnel underground near the heritage site, and would have seen the old road turned into a track for cyclists and pedestrians.
In 2017 Historic England, the National Trust and English Heritage had jointly welcomed the early-stages of the plan as it was introduced. National Highways said its plan for the tunnel would have removed the sight and sound of traffic passing the site and cut journey times.
But campaigners have since argued that the approach would not have curbed traffic and may have adversely affected the area. A series of legal challenges to the developments have followed in the years since.
Tom Holland, co-host of The Rest is History and President of the Stonehenge Alliance, is among those who have publicly opposed the plans.
Holland told The TImes earlier today: “One of the problems was it didn’t work as a way to reduce traffic congestion on the A303 because they weren’t going to dual carriageway the entire road and so you would whistle through this £2 billion white elephant and still get stuck behind a tractor four miles down the road,” he said.
