Experts attack ‘sad’ Stonehenge tunnel

LeADING archaeologists have united in a bid to stop controversial plans to build a road tunnel near Stonehenge.

It is designed to restore the tranquillity of the neolithic stones by removing traffic from earshot, but 22 experts say it is a ‘sad and retrograde step’.

Under initial designs for the scheme, outlined by Highways england, a new dual carriageway would follow the A303 about 540ft away, with tunnel entrances within the World Heritage Site.

But experts led by Professor Mike Parker-Pearson, of University College London, said it would destroy important archaeological remains.

The tunnel’s western entrance would damage an area with an important concentration of Stone Age burial monuments known as long barrows, and the new road would cut across the site of a settlement dating from the building of stone circle, they warned. New and astonishing finds were still being made across the area.

Consultation on the £1.6billion upgrade of the A303 in the area ends today.