Stonehenge tunnel faces new legal challenge

Campaigners have launched a fresh legal battle after the government approved plans for a controversial road tunnel at Stonehenge, after the project was granted a development consent order in July.

The Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site campaign (SSWHS) is challenging the decision by the transport secretary Mark Harper to allow a £1.7bn scheme including a two-mile tunnel near the ancient site designed to ease a congestion hotspot on the A303 in Wiltshire.

The scheme has proved divisive, with groups such as Historic England arguing that moving the road would improve the site, while others oppose it. The historian, author and president of the Stonehenge Alliance, Tom Holland, said that if the development was permitted to go ahead it would “permanently and irreversibly desecrate the Stonehenge landscape”.

The high court previously rejected a development consent order for the project in July 2021 amid concern about the impact on the Unesco world heritage site, after the former transport secretary Grant Shapps approved the project in November 2020 against the planning inspectors’ recommendations. The inspectors had said the road works would cause “permanent, irreversible harm” to the site.

The judge found Shapps’ decision to approve the project “unlawful” as there was no evidence of the impact on each individual asset at the site, while he had also failed to consider alternative schemes.

Now campaigners say they are being compelled to return to the courts after the Department for Transport gave permission for the tunnel for the second time. After further consultations, the Secretary of State essentially approved the original scheme with minor modifications.

John Adams, one of the three directors of SSWHS and chair of the Stonehenge Alliance, told the Guardian that the group felt they had no choice but to launch a second legal challenge in the face of the government’s “belligerence”.

“The government appears both blind and deaf to concerns about the damage it will perpetrate on this historic and much-loved landscape. It has ignored concerns raised by Unesco and seems hellbent on bulldozing this scheme through before it gets thrown out of government.”

Rowan Smith, a Leigh Day solicitor who represents the campaigners, said, “Our client is shocked that the government appears not to have learned from its mistakes and has repeated the decision to grant development consent for the Stonehenge road scheme.” Smith said the decision appeared to have been made on an unlawful basis again.

Derek Parody, National Highways project director for the A303 Stonehenge scheme, said, “We have been notified of the legal challenge and will follow the due legal process, but we remain confident this scheme is the best solution for solving the traffic problems along this notoriously congested section of the A303 while preserving and enhancing the World Heritage Site, improving journeys, bringing much needed relief to local communities and boosting the economy in the South West.