A303 update from Highways England.

Another day another meeting – about A303 matters, or at least it seems like it! On Tuesday evening, STAG attended the second of the new Highways England Forums which will take place by-monthly from now until time immemorial or 2025!!!

Highways England are anxious that we should be kept up to speed with the on-going project and hope that most people will have found the time to visit one of their consulations explaining where we are and what could be done. They would like your input in the “what could be done” bit and hope that as many of us will complete the response form with the help of the Public Consultation Booklet which can be collected at any of the remaining Consultations or most health centres and libraries in the area.

You can read this at: http://roads.highways.gov.uk/projects/a303-stonehenge-amesbury-and-berwick-down/

The booklet is easy to understand and is broken up into 3 sections: western section, central section, and eastern section. The response form gives you the chance to put your views on the proposals and the chance even to select the appearance of the tunnel entrances, portals, where green bridges might be best put, cycle tracks and by-ways, details of the new Longbarrow roundabouts, Countess roundabout and flyover and lots of other information that will affect us all in due course. Here’s the scary bit….Using the Consultation Booklet, the response form took me about 6 days to complete on-line, ducking in and out when I had the time, using the “save and come back later button”. Also, we have a little more time to complete our responses because of the recent bad weather….I received this e-mail yesterday:

“Dear Stonehenge Traffic Action Group

We wrote to you at the beginning of February about the launch of our formal public consultation on the proposals to upgrade the A303 past Stonehenge. The purpose of this email is to inform you that because we needed to cancel some of our consultation events due to the severe weather, we have decided to extend the formal consultation period until Monday 23 April 2018. This will allow time for rescheduled events in both Mere and Salisbury, and allow sufficient time for people to respond following these. Feedback from this consultation is important in helping us shape the scheme further; you can read more information at:

http://roads.highways.gov.uk/projects/a303-stonehenge-amesbury-and-berwick-down/ This includes details of the remaining public consultation events and the deposit locations where you can access printed copies of our consultation materials. If you have any questions you can phone us on 0300 123 5000 or email us at A303stonehenge@highwaysengland.co.uk “

And so, back to our meeting on Tuesday evening….this was very much an update from the one back in February, because the project is progressing so fast now. There are changes almost hourly and Highways England are anxious that we are kept up to speed….tho’ they know they can’t please all of the people all of the time, so there needs to be a compromise. They are doing their best in very difficult circumstances and terrain, not to mention archaeology and environment, which is all taken into account and can be read in the booklet. So! Please please please get involved and have your say, because it will be too late to complain when they submit the DCO – Development Consent Order to the planning inspectorate in the autumn of this year!!

You can continue to get updates locally at: 

https://www.facebook.com/StonehengeTrafficActionGroup/?

ref=aymt_homepage_panel 

or read the blog at: staga303.blogspot.co.uk

Best wishes

The STAG Team!

An audience with ICOMOS & UNESCO

So! our presentation with the big shots at ICOMOS & UNESCO went well and the folks from Paris and Australia weren't too scary at all. Gratifying to note that Richard McKay and Isobelle Antole Gabriel, were both taking notes on some points as I spoke but I had prepared 3 of everything in separate folders to be left for each of them, one of whom was called back to Paris early.   People who follow this blog, will be familiar with most of what I said but of course, the folks from ICOMOS & UNESCO were new to the situation and so here it is.....

Stonehenge Traffic Action Group
WHO WE ARE:
STAG: Stonehenge Traffic Action Group was set up by myself and my husband – Janice & David Hassett in September 2013. The purpose of which was to highlight the dangers of living in a village where rat running to avoid queues on the A303 past Stonehenge is the norm.
The campaign has evolved over time and a blog has been running since it’s inception, which has had over 41,000 visits from around the world. This can be reached at:
http://staga303.blogspot.co.uk/
and the facebook page: www.facebook.com/stonehengeTrafficActionGroup/ 
I would urge the good people from ICOMOS and UNESCO to take some time to have a read at both the blog and Facebook pages as this explains what has taken place over the course of 4.5 years. You will also be able to listen to the debate at the 2017 AGM of the National Trust where I stood up in support of the people of our village who have had to endure the problem of rat running which has increased hugely during this time.
I would like to point out that the majority of people against fixing the A303 past Stonehenge, don’t actually live in our area….some even live in London!!! and therefore do not suffer the way we do. The queues a few years ago, started on Friday afternoons – mostly west bound and continued all weekend till it all works in reverse, when on Sundays the queue is east bound. During school holidays, the queue is constant and in summer, all day and everyday. Much of this traffic diverts into our village where there is a paucity of pavements. We have elderly, mothers and children, cyclists and horse riders who all find our village currently, a dangerous place to live.
This is why we need to fix the A303 past Stonehenge and I’m certain that archaeologists from Highways England, National Trust and Heritage England have come together in an effort to make changes in a sympathetic and appropriate manner, whilst retaining the tranquillity of the World Heritage Site, and returning the land to nature and wild life. Putting the A303 into a tunnel will achieve all of this and there is no reason why there cannot be a balance between the living and the dead!

Those I refer to in the piece as - "not living in our area" and who don't therefore experience what we do, don't want anything done to fix the A303 past Stonehenge, would be our fiends from Stonehenge Alliance https://www.facebook.com/stonehengealliance/photos/pcb.2092221584345870/2092219054346123/?type=3&theater      With members most notable being Historian Dan Snow, Tom Holland and of course Tony Robinson....Baldrick to you and me!!.....unfortunately, Baldrick didn't turn up at their demonstration on Thursday 8th March outside the Consultation at The Society of Antiquaries, Piccadili in London, presumably because his turnip crop failed and he wouldn't be able to carry out his plan mentioned in our previous blog titled " Baldrick has a Cunning Plan" dated 11th February 2017 which was..... To block up both tunnel portals east and west with two enormous turnips!!! 

An Audience with.....

STAG: Stonehenge Traffic Action Group 
have yet again been asked to do a presentation to ICOMOS and UNESCO.   This time the hosts are www.highways.gov.uk/A303Stonehenge/consultation 
This will take place on Wednesday at the Holiday Inn, Amesbury and will be our second time of doing this, the last time being October 2015. Along with the usual opposition, we have a 20 minute slot at 11am to get our point across and this could make or break the A303 project.
There will be three representatives from ICOMOS and UNESCO – two archaeologists from France and an architect from Australia ……no pressure then!!   
More of this after next Wednesday and no doubt the media will pick up on it too.....