English Heritage...hands off our byways!

To carry on from my previous posting: Secret meetings with Culture Minister etc.....and the story in Salisbury Journal by Annie Riddle, we can now confirm, having written to Wiltshire Council www.wiltshire.gov.uk and a reply has been received from Rights of Way Officer at the Council, that said meeting did in fact take place....tho' when or where this was, (possibly London) we don't know, but it probably pre dated the visit by Ed Vaizey MP Minister for Culture www.vaizey.com to view the WHS on 16th April.    The General Manager for Stonehenge, Kate Davies has told us that she had literally 24 hours notice from the Minister that he planned an informal site visit on his return journey from Taunton.  He viewed the Stone Circle, Neolithic Houses, the Museum, took a look at Byway 12 had a coffee and left within 30 minutes.
That said, the e-mail from Wiltshire Council Rights of Way Officer, confirms
www.english-heritage.org.uk English Heritage's wish to proceed with : and I quote:

"The Minister’s instruction to his officials in DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) on how to progress English Heritage’s wish to close the byway is a matter for DCMS to comment on and any questions concerning the Minister’s instructions to his officials should therefore be directed to DCMS."  
Rest assured, we will be following this up.
English Heritage has two courses of action: 1) to either re-apply by TRO (traffic regulation order) which they first attempted in 2011 and this was rejected, or 2) by application for closure by SI (statutory instrument) which would have to go through Parliament.   This latter course would require EH to give notice in writing to Local Councils, as well as the County, and said application to be published in the London Gazette within a very specific time scale.   Presumably, this will all be carried out by their legal eagles from a desk somewhere in London.....far remote from the situation in hand.
For those not familliar with the term "Byway" these are unmade tracks around the WHS which have been in place for millenia, and Byway 12 is one of these, and possibly considered by EH to be too close to Stonehenge thus allowing the public to view the Stone Circle without going through, what they consider to be the "proper channels" and pay £14.90 entrance fee.   It does appear they are taking the view that to leave Byway 12 open is causing safety concerns and has nothing what so ever to do with viewing the WHS for free, however, we think differently.  
I give you Sir Cecil Chubb's instruction to grant Stonehenge to the nation and that the entrance should be free...
thanks to:http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/wiltshire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9020000/9020849.stm

Sir Cecil Chubb, who'd had no intention of bidding at the sale, bought it 'on a whim' as a gift for his wife who, it's claimed, was none too pleased. For the price of £6,600, the equivalent of £392,00 in today's money, Sir Cecil Chubb's intention that a "Salisbury man ought to buy it" was realised. Stonehenge worth £51m Just 95 years on and, according to a survey of 500 estate agents invited to put a price on national monuments across the UK, Stonehenge is now worth a monumental £51m. Whilst the recommended estate agent's blurb, suggested in the same survey carried out by findaproperty.com, could read: Stonehenge "Airy property with bags of potential. Comes with land but needs serious renovation, including new roof and double-glazing." But how would Messrs Knight, Franck and Rutley, the estate agents who originally handled the sale, sell Stonehenge today? "We would still advise our client to sell it at auction," says Andrew Rome from Knight and Franck. "And to sell it as a going concern as a business based on the income it generates." With Stonehenge attracting around 900,000 visitors a year, paying an average of £5 per head, a £51m valuation starts to sound like a good investment. Free admission For Sir Cecil, however, Stonehenge belonged to the nation, and in 1918 after owning it for just three years he formerly handed it over to the country with a number of conditions. His conditions were that the entrance fee should never be more then a shilling (5p) and that local residents should have free access. "The 1918 deed of gift didn't actually specify free access for local residents," says Joy Kaarnijoki at English Heritage, "it was an agreement with the Parish Council. "The road passed very close to the stones. The Council agreed that the rights of way could be diverted further from the stone circle on condition that local residents would be granted free access." Whether it was stipulated by Sir Cecil Chubb himself, or not, it's an agreement that has continued to the present day. According to English Heritage, the 30,000 local residents living in and around Stonehenge can still take up the offer of free access to one of England's most famous monuments.