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Stonehenge and its Environs

News

Salisbury by-pass considered as an alternative to tunnel


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-35322444

Amesbury Museum and Heritage Trust posted the above news link on FB this morning with the following statement:

"Two years ago today, the government lost its credibility here when, in a moment of pre election spin it pledged that a tunnel should be ploughed through the Stonehenge landscape so that public can no longer slow traffic down to see them, so that people in the West Country will vote for them and reap huge! benefits from saving 30 mins traffic delays on a Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and Bank holidays and so that over the coming century arguably one of the most significant Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape in Europe if not the World will be desecrated and our past consigned to the past. Once a concrete structure replaces a cubic kilometre of chalk there is no return, the chalk lands and natural aquifers will be altered, water flows will change and unless maintained for perpetuity, once the tunnel comes to the end of its 125yr life design, it will become the biggest man made headache for future generations to deal with. If by some pure act of vandalism the Government manage to continue to deliver this outrageous ill conceived scheme, they and those who support it will be named, published and go down in history as the vandals who destroyed Stonehenge and Britain's heritage.
The Trust will continue to support a southern bypass reroute that provides a sustainable long term solution for South Wiltshire, the living, as well as the dead. This alternative solution would do what the tunnel won't do and open up fully the Stonehenge Landscape without destroying it. We hope when a public consultation is eventually launched, common sense prevails and credibility is restored."
tjj Posted by tjj
1st December 2016ce

Comments (1)

What does 'a southern bypass of Salisbury' have to do with stonehenge? Salisbury (especially the southern side) is miles and miles away. Do they mean a southern bypass of Amesbury? If that goes through all the lovely villages along the river it's going to royally eff up the area.

I'm tempted to say just leave it how it is and if you have to sit in the traffic because people want to gawp at the stones, then tough.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
2nd December 2016ce
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