Bbc News - Protestors Block The A303 Tunnel At Stonehenge.

[DTCwordfan]

Can someone explain the logic of this? Even the World Heritage Sites have threatened to remove their backing of the site .... Surely putting a dual carriageway underground for the envisaged couple of miles and the carriage up to the Winterbourne Stoke junction would take emissions away from Stonehenge.

Incomprehensible in my book, not unless they are ploughing through the remains of my grandfather to the fortieth generation, or possibly the hundred and fortieth, Olaf......

Anybody know the raison d'etre for this? Not least tje current road is well south of the rocks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-58024139

[davebro]

I'm surprised the Welsh haven't demanded the return of their stones!

[Buenchico]

This FAQs page, from the protest campaign's website, goes some way to answering your question:
https://stonehengealliance.org.uk/top-10-frequently-asked-questions/

[Buenchico]

Case summary here:
https://stonehengealliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Stonehenge-Alliance.-Summary-of-Case.-FINAL-Mk.2.pdf

[237SJ]

The road should simply be widened. The A303 is fine where there are two lanes but the constant bottlenecks where two lanes combine into one are the cause of the problems. I`ve been using that road for years and it never used to be as bad as it is now - purely down to volume of traffic.

[Hopkirk]

Also it is fairly close the the henge, so people slow to look at it.

I think the tunnel idea was to stop this.

[Peter Pedant]

The case was decided ( a/c to the beeb - I draw the line at reading planning decisions) on a technicality

he (Grand Shapps) was wrong in LAW not to .... oops

A very early case ( sixties ) where the man from the ministry set aside 2 d for objections which everyone knew were so numerous it would take 4 w (!) - you know I think it was Gordon Walker of smethwick fame - got me to read law at uni. - That case wd have been decided on Wednesbury perversity which is harder now ( and rarer) than appeals on human rights (!!) - proportionality

I thought a tunnel was a good idea
and one of the things the min didnt consider was a tunnel with a dual carriageway (!!!)

[Peter Pedant]

as DTC is an educated ABer ( um is that like - postal service or military intelligence? never mind reader, read on !)

raison d'etre - is wrong - it is nt a reason to be(*)
raison de pontsay perhaps - but that doesnt exist in English

ratio - or ratio decidendi ( yeah it really is dessy-dend-DIIIIEEEEEE)Try not to look glary on DIE syllable.)

but blank-minded latino-phobes will be after me if I say that

'on what grounds they have decided' I think is optimal in the circumstances

(*) stonehenge itself ( per se perhaps peutetre) would have a raison d'etre both then ( religious, ) and now ( archeological )

[237SJ]

I`ve found that the biggest problem in that area is at the Longbarrow roundabout eastbound - you haven`t even got to Stonehenge then but its nearly always bedlam.

[DTCwordfan]

not sure where you are with that SJ - I've always hated that final 1.5 miles of A303 up the hill from the junction at the bottom of the 'dual carriageway' though if you go right there (coming from the east), then left through the military base and left back onto the Shaftesbury junction on the A303, that can be quite a good diversion around Stonehenge at peak times....

[DTCwordfan]

also if one gets the timing right, coming either way, head for Wilton, lunch at the Greyhound (very good) and then cut back over Salisbury and up to Andover - or in the other direction come up to the A303 from Wilton....a little further but worth the detour.

[237SJ]

You used to be able to divert right just before Stonehenge (heading west) to avoid traffic queues but they closed that road off and it's part of a field now. That didn't help

[Peter Pedant]

Wilton House has a rare double cube room
( 2x long, x high and x wide)

the one at Kingston Laceuy has destabilised the structure ( after er 200 y) - wilton Rd call into Novichok close too

[DTCwordfan]

Peter - doesn't Novak Djokovic have a house in Kingston Laceuy?

[DTCwordfan]

So Chris, I conclude that common-sense has been overruled by not following every p and q in the planning process....borders on being 'woke'.

[DTCwordfan]

Some 'Humphreys' in S(c)h(n)app's department need turfing out of the Civil Service for this - drunk in charge were they?

[jourdain2]

I'm sure I read that in the 1950s it was agreed to dual the road all the way to the S.W.. It's like up here - the A64 has been screaming to be dualled for over 50 years, it's the main E/W route to the coast from Leeds etc.; lots of improvements have been mooted and passed .... and then nothing has happened and they have been quietly dropped. You can follow a long train of traffic, all stuck behind a tractor, for 5 miles.

If the original intent to dual the A303 had been carried out, this would not be an issue. Put not your trust in politicians.

[237SJ]

If the A303 was a dual carriageway all the way from the M3 to to the Ilminster bypass it would be a great road. I don't think that is going to happen though.

[DTCwordfan]

I would argue for all the way to the M5, either to Exeter or Taunton from that roundabout at the end of the Ilminster bypasses....

[237SJ]

The A303 is fine from the end of the M3 until it gets to Stonehenge. It's after that where it goes pear shaped. When I drive back from the Westcountry I'm flying after Stonehenge.

[DTCwordfan]

Agree - and then one can grind into the M3 towards London, though that has improved recently.