Talks on Stonehenge road tunnel delayed by neolithic find
A decision on whether construction of a road tunnel near Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, can go ahead has been further delayed by the transport secretary, Grant Shapps.
The deadline for the verdict has been extended by four months to late autumn to allow further consultation following a recent archaeological find within the Stonehenge world heritage site, the transport minister, Andrew Stephenson, said.
In June it emerged that a team of archaeologists had discovered a ring of at least 20 shafts, 5 metres deep, near the stones. Experts said they believed these prehistoric pits, thought to date back about 4,500 years, could have served as a boundary to a sacred area.
The A303, a popular route to and from England’s south-west, is often severely congested on the single carriageway stretch near Stonehenge.
Highways England, the government-owned company responsible for England’s motorways and major A roads, said its scheme for a 2-mile (3.2km) tunnel, a project with a likely cost of about £2bn, would remove the sight and sound of traffic passing the site and cut journey times.
Environmentalists and archaeologists have voiced opposition to the scheme due to its potential impact on the area, while the National Audit Office has questioned its value.
The tunnel project is classified as nationally significant, which means that a development consent order is needed for it to go ahead. The UK planning inspectorate issued its recommendations on the issue to Shapps on 2 January.
Shapps was due to make his decision within three months of that date, but the deadline was initially extended until Friday and has now been pushed back to 13 November. Stephenson said the setting of a new date was “without prejudice to the decision”.
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, announced in March that funding was in place for the project, part of a £1.7bn upgrade of the A303. Public-private funding was due to be used to finance the work but in October 2018 Philip Hammond, who was chancellor at the time, cancelled future deals using that model.