Tunnel plan threat to Stonehenge
STONEHENGE is under grave threat from “destructive” upgrade work to the nearby A303 – despite government plans to spend £35million on an archeological team to preserve and record the site.
Contractors are to dig a huge tunnel under the monument and build eight miles of dual carriageway at a cost of £1.7billion.
But campaigners believe the project will “irreversibly damage” a landscape that has millennia of history, and destroy unknown numbers of artefacts beneath the surface of the 5,000-year-old Wiltshire landmark.
Professor Mike Parker Pearson, of the Institute of Archeology at University College London, said: “This project will cause a huge amount of destruction.we will lose something like 500,000 artefacts, which will be bulldozed because they consider it too much effort to recover all those finds.
“The Government has also rejected the concerns of the international community.”
Unesco has said the work, planned for next year, could damage theworld Heritage Site’s “outstanding universal value” and it suggested an alternative bypass route.
Tom Holland, president of the Stonehenge Alliance, said: “I can’t believe what they are considering doing.”
Highways England project director Derek Parody said: “We remain confident that the proposed scheme presents the best solution for improving this vital route, while preserving heritage by conserving the site.”