Sounds like Silbury Hill will need to actually collapse before EH's crack team wake up n' get on the case! Rebuild it out of concrete n' put a tea room on top.

So it took EH six years to come to decision? or have I read it wrong?

This story is a bit old though.

The Heritage Lottery Fund have recently pulled their commitment to fund the restoration.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/3439119.stm

Some of the history.....

July 1996 - £968,000 to fund emergency holding works, plus a development grant of £18,000 to contribute towards a plan to explore a viable future for the pier.

May 2000 - earmarked £14.2 million for the full restoration of the pier.
From this allocation, £1.6 million has already been awarded, partly for emergency repairs.

So, if that's right, then that is £2.5 million of public money down the drain, for a bridge that goes no where? (runs and ducks for cover)

Of course, HLF will now get bad publicity for being brave enough to admit that they simply can't spend so much public money on one, potentially unsustainable, project (whose costs have risen to £19.6m) that no-one else seems to be also interested in funding. Now, where's that Millennium Dome when you need it? Maybe we can blame asylum seekers instead?