On Monday 29 July 2024, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachael Reeves MP, announced that the scheme to build a tunnel through the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Stonehenge, which would include a bypass for Winterbourne Stoke, would be scrapped. This ends 6 years of archaeological and environmental surveys, and work outside the scope of the scheme, including the closure of the A360 for 3 months to route electrical power onto the planned construction site, at a total cost of £166m.
There is NO Plan “B”
As a result, the Parish Council has requested an Extraordinary Meeting of the Parish, so that villagers of Winterbourne Stoke can express their views as to what should happen regarding the A303 and the associated traffic problems from now on. This will be held at the Stonehenge Visitors’ Centre from 7:00pm on Tuesday 13 August 2024.
The main purpose of the meeting is to allow our villagers the opportunity to discuss and decide how they want to move forward and for the Parish Council to see where it could facilitate and support those aims and objectives. The secondary purpose is to allow other local villages, who will be impacted by any action, or inaction, of Winterbourne Stoke villagers, to better understand the potential impacts and how villages might better work together to achieve common goals.
If you are at the meeting, you will have a voice. If you are not there, your views won’t be heard and your views are important.
Danny Kruger, MP for Wiltshire East, representatives of Wiltshire Council and other local villages impacted by the Government’s announcement on the A303, will be invited to attend, so they can report back our villages views to their respective organisations.
Remember, there is NO Plan “B”
A Brief History of the A303.
In the early 1800s, what is now the A303 was created as the “New Direct Route” to Exeter for stagecoaches. With the advent of the train, the route fell into disrepair, and by the start of the 20th century, it was barely passable in places.
In the early 1920s, the main route to the West was the A30 through Salisbury to Yeovil.
The A303 was created on 1 April 1933 as, “ the alternate London to Exeter route”.
In 1958, the A303 was designated a trunk road, but without the necessary upgrades to make it fit for purpose. (For example, the bridge over the River Till at Winterbourne Stoke is too narrow to meet modern trunk road requirements).
The 1960s saw various widening schemes, including the so-called suicide sections with 3 lanes. Andover and Amesbury were bypassed.
In 1971, the Conservative government announced that the A303 would be improved, and some parts were. A planned dual-carriageway past Stonehenge was abandoned.
A plan of further major improvements in the late 1980s was abandoned by the Thatcher government; possibly following the destruction of an Iron Age settlement site in Hampshire and the outcry that engendered.
In 1986 Stonehenge was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. The Stonehenge WHS covers 6,500 acres. The A303 crosses through the WHS.
A Stonehenge bypass reappeared in the Conservative’s Roads for Prosperity plan of 1989, and this included a bypass for Winterbourne Stoke.
These plans were redrawn under John Major’s Conservative government in the early 1990s. Even the Stonehenge Alliance, a group opposed to the recent tunnel scheme, now admit that this plan was universally acceptable. It was cancelled by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 1998, even though they had initially supported the scheme.
In 2003, the Labour government proposed a “cut and shut” tunnel solution. This went to a public enquiry, but the Labour government realised that the projected costs had doubled and was very unpopular. It was ultimately cancelled in 2007 by Gordon Brown’s Labour government on the grounds of ‘excessive environmental constraints’.
In 2013, the A344 which went past Stonehenge from the A303 at Stonehenge Bottom to Airman’s Corner, was closed as part of a £27m scheme, which put more traffic onto the section of the A303 past the stones, but eliminated a dangerous junction; Wiltshire Council having reneged on a historic pledge to not close the A344 until the A303 bypass issue had been resolved. In December 2013 the new Stonehenge Exhibition and Visitors’ Centre was built with a car park for 500 vehicles and 30 coaches.
In 2016, Theresa May’s Conservative government launched the most recent scheme, which after another 8 years wasted effort, and £166m spent, the scheme was cancelled on 29 July 2024 by Kier Starmer’s recently elected Labour Government. Ironically, on 23 July 2024, the World Heritage Committee sitting in New Delhi, decided that the proposed A303 tunnel scheme had made sufficient concessions to the UNESCO viewpoint and therefore Stonehenge WHS would not be placed on the “at risk” list.