Stonehenge A303 tunnel plan scrapped
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has put an end to plans that would have relieved congestion
The £1.7 billion scheme to build a two-mile tunnel to bypass Stonehenge has been canned by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves.
Along with a £320-million plan for a bypass at Arundel on the A27, it means £2bn of road projects have been ditched as the chancellor looks to close what Labour has described as a £22bn black hole in public finances left by the previous Conservative government.
Scheme splits opinion
The Stonehenge A303 tunnel has divided opinion among local residents, whose villages suffer extreme traffic congestion at busy times of year, and environmentalists concerned about the damage moving the road underground would cause. However it was finally approved by the previous Conservative government late in 2020.
However, Reeves said: “We have seen from the National Audit Office the chaos that the previous government presided over. Projects over budget, and delayed again and again.
“The spending audit has revealed nearly £800m of unfunded transport projects that have been committed next year.
“So my right honourable friend, the transport secretary, will undertake a thorough review of all these commitments.
“As part of that work, she has agreed not to move forward with projects that the previous government refused to publicly cancel, despite knowing full well they were unaffordable. That includes proposed work on the A303 and the A27.”
High Court battle
The plan was to put two miles of the A303 underground, involving upgrading an eight-mile stretch of the road in total either side of the site.
Proponents said it would remove the A303 from the landscape near the Unesco World Heritage Site and remove a bottleneck which causes long tailbacks during peak hours. But a High Court battle has been raging back and forth during the past four years as environmental campaigners sought to get approval of the scheme overturned.
Councillor Richard Clewer, the leader of Wiltshire Council, said: “We are extremely dismayed and disappointed at the government’s decision to cancel the A303 Stonehenge tunnel project.
“These improvements are needed now to ease traffic congestion on the A303 and reduce traffic in our communities, and also ensure economic growth in Wiltshire, unlocking jobs and investment in the wider south-west region.
“It has taken many years of lobbying and working closely with partners, including National Highways, to bring this major infrastructure project to Wiltshire, and so it is a huge blow to get to the stage when construction is ready to begin, only to have this taken away from us at this late hour.
‘No viable alternative’
“There has already been £160m spent on this project, and cancelling it now wastes that huge investment, including the work to run a power supply up the A360 to the tunnel site.
“There is currently no viable alternative to the tunnel on the table.
“It would return the Stonehenge landscape to something like its original setting and allow local communities greater access to the ancient stones and the surrounding World Heritage Site.
“We will remain committed to this project and will continue to work closely with all stakeholders to try to bring this project back to Wiltshire, to reduce rat-running in our communities, to reduce journey times to the wider south-west, to boost economic growth in Wiltshire, and to unlock jobs and investment across the region.”
Related articles
- If you found news on the proposed Stonehenge tunnel interesting, you might like to read more about previous attempts to prevent its construction
- Read more on why the A303 tunnel risked putting Stonehenge’s Unesco status on the line
- You might also like to read about other issues with the previous government’s road-building plan
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