Campaigners launch new legal challenge over Stonehenge tunnel

Campaigners have launched a new legal challenge over the construction of a road tunnel near Stonehenge.

Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site (SSWHS) is challenging the government after it approved a £1.7bn two-mile (3.2km) tunnel from Amesbury to Berwick Down in Wiltshire on 14 July.

The group has raised concerns about damage the tunnel could cause to the "historic and much-loved landscape".

National Highways said the tunnel will reduce traffic and cut journey times.

SSWHS has filed the claim with the High Court after the Department for Transport (DfT) approved the plans for a second time in July.

Planning permission was first given in 2020 but was later quashed by the High Court in 2021 after a successful legal challenge by the campaign group.

A spokesperson for SSWHS said the government's approval "flies in the face of opposition from UNESCO" and the recommendation for refusal of the scheme by five of the government's own independent planning inspectors

They added that UNESCO had asked the Government not to approve the scheme ahead of its World Heritage Committee meeting in September.

Tom Holland, historian and president of the Stonehenge Alliance said: "The Government is neglecting its duty of care to a landscape that is not just a precious part of Britain's cultural patrimony, but the world's.

"Nothing can justify such vandalism.

"I welcome this action, as a chance to halt a development that, if allowed to go ahead, will permanently and irreversibly desecrate the Stonehenge landscape."

The A303 is a congestion hotspot, with drivers heading to and from the South West during peak holiday periods often stuck in long queues on the single carriageway stretch near the stones.

Highways England says its plan will remove the sight and sound of traffic passing the site and cut journey times.

The project is classified as nationally significant, which means a development consent order is needed for it to go ahead.

In granting approval, Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, said he was "satisfied there is a clear need" for the tunnel and the project's "harm on spatial, visual relations and settings is less than substantial and should be weighed against the public benefits".

The DfT said it could not comment on legal proceedings.

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