If you're going to Glasto this year.....

Can you do us a favour and seek out the children's entertainer - sorry, don't know his name but probably to be found at https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/areas/kidz-field/ .  Please tell him from me, Dave is still suffering pain and his clavicle (collar bone) has not settled....see this photo from last week.  The man involved will remember that on his way home in his motorhome from last year's Glastonbury, he knocked my husband off his bike while Rat Running through Shrewton at 20 mph on a 6 meter wide road.  It is my understanding that the cyclist has priority over a motorised vehicle with pedestrians having 1st priority.  However, I doubt the guy will be too concerned since he, at the time, said he was "punched" by Dave....I fail to see how this could ever be the truth while Dave was on his way to the ground with damages to his bike and glasses as well as his mental health and well being.  You can read the full story here: https://staga303.blogspot.com/2023/07/2nd-in-command-comes-cropper.html

As it happens, the man may have done us a favour, because even although in some pain, we now live 390 miles away and he probably contributed to our decision to sell up and move on, now living in a quiet village on the borders of Scotland, we don't need to worry anymore about the traffic in Shrewton....sadly, we've left all that behind for the residents who have put up with the rat run for over 30 years, while it steadly gets worse as the A303 passing Stonehenge is no longer fit for purpose and the Project to fix this is continually held up by https://stonehengealliance.org.uk/   They continue to reap money from all around the world from people who have never been to Witlshire and wouldn't know where Stonehenge is, far less knowing why they're donating and to what.  These continual hold ups from this group are to blame for the increased cost and they have, at the same time missed the point of the whole process.

Court of Appeal up held - sadly!

And here's an update of the money SSWHS/Stonehenge Alliance have the ability to collect from people who don't live anywhere near the problem - some in other countries, and who don't understand and follow the lies!  

At 10.50 today 24th May - £104,870.00

This has come in from the A303 Project Director at National Highways:                                            

A303 Stonehenge - Court of Appeal update

On Friday 17 May, the Court of Appeal informed us that Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site’s appeal will be heard in the Court of Appeal.    

https://stonehengealliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-05-21-permission-to-appeal-web.pdf

We are hugely disappointed by this decision, which will cause more delays to this scheme as the next stage of the legal process unfolds.  
We will participate fully in any future legal proceedings to continue to present the case for the scheme, working closely with Department for Transport (Dft)

What does this mean for the scheme? 
We still have our Development Consent Order (DCO) in place, so the scheme isn’t cancelled, but this extra legal process will delay the start of our preliminary works and we’ll need to adjust the whole main works programme accordingly. We don’t know what that will look like yet, because we don’t know the extent of the delay. We can’t determine the length of that legal process, and we will need to work closely with DfT and our legal teams to understand what our next steps are.  

What happens next? 
We need to await the date for the hearing, which the Court of Appeal will decide. At the hearing, both sides will present their case and the judge in charge will use this to make their decision. They will either quash or uphold this latest legal challenge. If it’s quashed, that means we’ll be able to go ahead with the scheme, because there would be no other legal route for opposition groups to pursue. If the challenge is upheld, the Department for Transport would decide what to do next, working closely with the project team and National Highways to do so. 

What about the A360 temporary closure? 

This work will continue without any change.  You can find more about this work on the A360 temporary closure webpage (www.a360temporaryclosure.co.uk) provided and updated by Southern and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) who are carrying out this work on our behalf.  

A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down Info​​​​ A303 Stonehenge Project Email:  info@a303stonehenge.co.uk Web:  nationalhighways.co.uk/our-roads/a303-stonehenge/ So! SSWHS need a further £134,000.00 for this appeal - they will get this money from all around the world - from people who don't even know where the World Heritage Site is or have ever visit same!   They have two appeals to achieve this - one for the UK and one for International collections. I'm not going to provide the information on my blog....you'll have to read the link above! Very sad for the people who work tirelessly on the project for it to be knocked back for a third time.....not the mention the increased cost to the tax payer!!

It's Time for Action - apparently......

So this lot are at it again....telling the voting public what they should do, as if we don't have a mind of our own.....well maybe that's a mute point where their followers are concerned and they need to be led by the nose.....here's what they're saying......   

" It's time to take action! Tell your MP/ parliamentary candidates, that YOU WILL ONLY VOTE FOR THEM IF THEY STOP WASTING £3bn++ ON THE STONEHENGE ROAD SCHEME (and £bns on other big damaging road schemes which are making things worse). They should commit to spending on climate friendly transport instead. WHAT TO SAY? 

 https://stonehengealliance.org.uk/act-now/write-to-your-mp/"

Where they've calculated £3bn (if true) means they say the cost has doubled in just over 2 years....is down to them slowing the whole process up using money from around the world from people who don't even know where Stonehenge is to be found or the World Heritage Site for that matter.

When will someone other than STAG take them on, right now Stonehenge Alliance, seem to have the platform to themselves....we had a flurry of interest from the archaeologist's back in December last, see here: https://staga303.blogspot.com/2023/12/at-last-support.html but now they appear to have gone quiet...this is what they said to encourage more support back then..."archaeologists themselves have been overwhelmingly absent from the discourse. While a number of public figures have shared their views on the project, many of the individual archaeologists and heritage specialists who are best-informed on the subject are unable to comment due to factors which include their professional obligations. Meanwhile, many major organisations representing UK archaeology have distanced themselves from the heart of this politicised and polarised debate.   Into the vacuum has stepped the Stonehenge Alliance, whose increasingly divisive and populist rhetoric directly risks the public understanding of archaeology in the UK for many years to come. Rather than being presented with diverse, informed perspectives, the tone of the matter has been steered, almost single-handedly, by this campaign group and its backers.   The role of archaeological intervention in mitigating impact on heritage has been consistently distorted and misrepresented by the Stonehenge Alliance campaign in spite of persistent requests by archaeologists to tone down their rhetoric."   Hello!...where are you now?

More hyperbole on their Facebook page where they talk about campaigning for 3 generations....I work this out to be at least 66 years...Stonehenge Alliance.....your campaign is not that old - on research I see your group were constituded in 2001 and my calcs say that's just 22 years!!!  

Then we have to come back around to the main subject of traffic and the A303 causing rat runs through local villages....here is our take on this on their F/b page: 

"Do any of the present 9 who have 'liked' this post, actually live anywhere near the problem? I assume NOT!! The A303 at Stonehenge needs to be fixed by what ever means....it's not fit for purpose causing huge rat runs through local villages on roads as narrow as 6 meters wide with no pavements or street lighting. As for increasing the rail network....an you lot seem to have costed this out?? How many homes/villages would have to be compulsory purchased to achieve this...presumably not in your costings!!!"

See this comment : " our infrastructure and roads need investment also. This stretch is dangerous, overburdened by traffic it was never designed for, and as a result causes misery and enhanced emissions for both users of the road and the villages who are used to avoid the traffic. The project should have been started in 2019, the inflationary increase in costs is directly attributed to this farce of an organisation who have forced delay.

I'll be happy to see Stonehenge return to it's grassy landscape, without standstill traffic parked next to it, whilst also benefiting from a road that can handle the volume of traffic required to use it.

This country needs to progress it's transport links, it can't stay how it is." and further discussion here: https://www.facebook.com/search/posts?q=stonehenge%20alliance&filters=eyJyZWNlbnRfcG9zdHM6MCI6IntcIm5hbWVcIjpcInJlY2VudF9wb3N0c1wiLFwiYXJnc1wiOlwiXCJ9In0%3D

My thanks for permission to allow to this comment from SHA's Facebook page:Isn't it about time some people started getting annoyed about the vexacious stuff like this that Stonehenge Alliance persist in attempting to ram down our throats. You've now finally got prominent archaeologists up in arms about the litany of falsehoods perpetuated by this organisation which is nothing but a quango. The current MP, and the electorate he represents should be allowed to make their own minds up, and not be swayed by these kind of threats. Take note: the Stonehenge WHS didn't come into existence until 1986, when the trunk road that passes East/West across the area had been in existence for 8 decades and more. All alternative plans for this section of the A303 have been comprehensively examined for more than 30 years, and what is proposed is perhaps imperfect, but this £3 billion figure (if correct-which I doubt) would be considerably less if Stonehenge Alliance had been willing to enter meaningful discussions with Government Agencies, but chose not because they stated "we have NO common ground".

• Reply