A303 - Highway To The Sun!

A book I am drawn to read right now, written in 2012 by Tom Fort, a journalist who worked for the BBC for 22 years.  

Tom was, and possibly still is an expert on the A303 - all 92 miles of it and is probably still affectionate towards it.   I hope he won't mind me showing a couple of pages from the Introduction of the book, written during his research and just talking to people at a service area:
  I wonder if the present A303 is still close to his heart because, as we all know, it has changed beyond all recognition, since he put pen to paper....so to speak, which was prior the closure of the A344 to accommodate the New Visitor's Centre for the WHS.   Unfortunately, the queues are now much longer than he will remember......an hour long would be the norm nowadays to take us from Beacon Hill to Longbarrow roundabout....just 6 miles!    What we would like to know, is why was the Visitor's Centre built just off Airman's Cross putting all 6000 vehicles per day, that would normally traverse the A344.... onto the A303 increasing rat running through local villages!    Why did the planners and architects get things so wrong and why don't they admit they got it wrong?   What does Mr Fort think of the way things have turned out.....especially for local people and the result of rat running, for tourists held up on their way to that Highway To The Sun, and of course there's the effect on the economy, present and future.   Had the New Visitor's Centre been - more intelligently built at Fargo Woods, the A344 could have been a direct route, as it had been, for both, visitors to the Stone Circle and now the new visitor's centre, therefore relieving the now beleaguered A303 and preventing the increase in accidents that have occurred recently, of people slowing down to view or take on the move photos of the Stone Circle.    Oh! Of course, I've just had a lapse of memory....www.english-heritage.org.uk planned it that way because they didn't want anyone to get a free view of the WHS as one could in the days of Mr Fort toing and froing and perhaps even stopping to have a picnic by the Stone Circle - for free.   EH have certainly got their wish, causing chaos around the area in the process. A quickie through the fence didn't harm anyone.   Now it's £13.90 advance booking and 2 hours out of a day! 
I'm even pretty sure, Nicholas Lezard who reviewed Highway To The Sun in the Guardian 14.05.13 just one month before the closure of the A344 will surely be eating his words....: "But the A303 has much history on its side – or to either side. Fort's account of succeeding attempts to explain Stonehenge are worth the detour, and I am inclined to agree with his suggestion that the real reason that nothing has been done about diverting the road away from the stones is not due to the intransigence of the various departments, but down to the fact that, deep down, we kind of like the arrangement of road and monument the way it is"........Well I've got news for you lads....NO WE DON'T.....not now anyway!

EH letting us down again.....continued

And to continue my previous post that www.english-heritage.org.uk still have much work to do, with regard to completing a definitive cycle path between By way 12 and Stonehenge Bottom.  
This is where I post up certain sections of the "Report to the Secretary of State" Stopping up Order or SUO File Ref: DPI/T3915 paras 3.8 to 3.28 all of which relates to what should have been completed to meet the requirement of the aforementioned SUO.......   I draw your attention in particular, to paragraphs 3.11 and 3.12....and from these photos, taken today, showing the lack of progress, it does appear they are certainly dragging their heels on this work.......and one wonders if that sign on my last posting....just might be the reason!

  This 'ere building site, is the underground shop area of the previous visitor's centre just off the A344....what ever they're up to and it may be that it will turn out to be toilet facilities - needed, and a 1st aid room, also needed, at the actual Stone Circle site.....but for this to take a further 11 months after the completion of the new visitor's centre, is anyone's guess.....another building site out of view of the paying public fortunately.

 Work in progress??   supposed to be completed by the opening of  Visitor's Centre - 18th December 2013!!

Remember the A344 - full of weeds now!

 Blades of grass covered in sand has no chance of growing through this blanket of mesh - the gaps are too small with the usual flint of the area.
            













The entrance to the cycling/walking/riding/path still blocked to the public!

                  

And this, my friends, is the surface EH have provided for you to ride your bike.....where nothing will grow but weeds.   It might just be wise to take that extra bicycle tyre as a replacement, because of the amount of flint!!! 

So! why is the work to meet the conditions of the SUO still underway and looking like a building site!?

English Heritage.....letting us down again!

Well here we are....
1) - 8 months after my post of 29.01.14 "English Heritage adopting etc...."
2) - 9 months since the new Visitor's Centre official opening on 18.12.13
3) - 1 year 3 months after the closure of the A344 and commencement of the
TRO: (Traffic Regulation Order)
and still not a lot has been done vis a vis the erection of Kent Carriage Gaps - they look like this and the measurement is:

However, just recently, it does appear EH made some attempt at installing said gate, and the tidying up of kerbs and paths....and I thank my learned friends for providing these photos which were taken between Airman's Cross...(oops! I mean Corner, don't I) and the entrance to the Visitor's Centre car park....
Do you think it may have been a rush overnight job in view of insider knowledge of the visitation of a certain President??
(er! I fink ya got it wrong again Dad)!!.....because of course....they're in the wrong place, and the Kent carriage gap should be built across a path, walkway, or as in this case the A344.....not on the side of .....so therefore - not fit for purpose and how is one supposed to ride a bike or drive a carriage over this.....!!!  

And it gets worse.... bear in mind that the path you can see, running from left to right, comes down from the coach park and we do note they have dropped
the kerb, is the main access for visitors going to and coming from the Visitor's Centre.

   Given these pedestrians are about to cross an open highway, the A344, in very large numbers, you'd think English Heritage would have had the common sense to do a number of things. First, leading pedestrians onto and across a highway, without warning them they are crossing one, is a fairly stupid thing to do; particularly given that many of them are foreign visitors. Also, wouldn't you think, there might be proper signage on the path and the road, "Look both ways" signs on the footpath, etc, etc, but no!    So, a typical English Heritage bodge job and when we have our first visitor mown down by a horse rider, horse and carriage or even a cyclist, the negligence on English Heritage's part will be clear.
We also have to report that there has been no further progress from the aforementioned post of 29th January for the completion of the so called "cycle/walk route" between By way 12 and Stonehenge Bottom nor a safe crossing after the gate.....So! it's clear to all, they might as well make a new sign:  


"BY ORDER OF ENGLISH HERITAGE:
THERE SHALL BE NO FREE VIEWING OF OUR STONE CIRCLE!"

And now, an update of the work on the Kent Carriage gap....this past week, EH have gone in with tarmac and rollers and it's now all lovely and smooth on the far side!!:

May I draw your attention to that previous post dated 29.01.14.....
"When the A344 was closed in June last year, English Heritage, took it upon themselves to erect some nice 5 bar gates.....to keep us all out!
To assist with this....they also put some "yellow jackets" in place. I've had more than enough e-mails telling me that they've "done their own thing" by putting up the gates and worse still.....locking them at night. These gates, whilst agreed by Wiltshire Council on a TRO - Traffic Regulation Order, as part of the planning permission for the new visitor's centre, were merely to stop unauthorised vehicles and should not be closed to the public! We have the right to walk/cycle/ride or use a horse and carriage i.e. mechanically propelled vehicles, beyond the gates and this is not questionable. This is an extract from an e-mail to one of our supporters from: Development Control Engineer, Wiltshire Council: "I can assure you that the works have been carried out generally in accordance with the planning permission, and the accompanying planning obligations, which clearly set out intentions to control vehicle traffic movement along the A344; the arrangements for the gates were agreed and facilitated by Wiltshire Council, acting in its capacity as both local planning and highway authority" The TRO stated that there are no restrictions to the following: pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders, or invalid carriages......still, the "Yellow Jackets" are not allowing "the public right of way" without asking questions as to why you would want to pass through the gates! English Heritage just don't want anyone seeing those Stones without paying....do they?!"
 

Mr President, you are officially a...... "Rat Runner"!

My thanks are due to www.salisburyjournal.co.uk First published Friday 5 September 2014 in News
Last updated 21:06 Friday 5 September 2014 Exclusive by Joel Holt

"BARACK Obama fulfilled a personal ambition of visiting Stonehenge today.
When making the unscheduled trip, the American President said: "How cool is this? ... knocked it off my bucket list."
Mr Obama made the surprise stop at Boscombe Down Military Base in the Marine One helicopter following the NATO talks held in Wales"!

Mr President, we know you're a very personable man as this was evident when you met our local family...The Raffles, who were in raptures at meeting the most powerful man in the World!!   
However! as the Founder of STAG: Stonehenge Traffic Action Group and a resident of the village of Shrewton...... Sir, your motorcade is impressive, and under normal conditions, it should have taken you to Stonehenge using our notorious A303 the main route west....but obviously the lead driver had inside knowledge.....maybe he even looked at my blog reached at www.sh2.co.uk before he left the US, telling him of all the problems we have with the A303.....since the closure of the A344...that was the road you were taken down from the Visitor's Centre to actually reach the Stone Circle.   6000 vehicles a day used the A344 before it was closed by www.english-heritage.org.uk in June 2013 to accommodate the New Visitor's Centre.   Now all of those vehicles, along with those headed to the Visitor's Centre, and those headed south, north and west, are on the A303.....creating the notorious bottleneck at Stonehenge Bottom....see photos on other posts on my blog as previously mentioned.   This is why you were taken around the "Rat Run" route.....good planning there by someone...yes!   The Rat Run covers all of the villages around Stonehenge and has made our lives a misery and you Mr President, are well and truly one of those Rat Runners!  But since you're a very nice man, we can forgive, and it was an honour to receive you in this part of Wiltshire!
Oh yes! and while we're on the subject of the "NEW" Visitor's Centre Sir, I do hope you and the individuals part of your motorcade paid the £14.90 entrance fee, and had booked in 24 hours prior to your arrival, like we have to!!!    You may be interested to know, that Stonehenge was gifted to the Nation, by One - Sir Cecil Chubb, in 1918.....please see a previous post "EH Hands off our Byways" 08.05.2014.   He said that everyone should enter for just 1 shilling.   English Heritage are the custodians of the Stone Circle and even we locals have to pre book, tho' they have so far, stood by, the free entrance for local people......but for how long?
Currently Sir, over 4000 Americans have looked in on my blog since its inception in the Fall of last year...for which I thank them, and your Goodself for taking the time to read this.   I do hope you will take it in the light hearted way in which it is meant.
Please come and visit our beautiful county again soon......but stay off that A303 y'all!!!
STAG has another blog: http://bypasswinterbournestoke.blogspot.com

 

English Heritage - YOU CAN PREVENT THIS.....

Since the closure of the A344 in June 2013 there have been a number accidents and incidents at the Stonehenge section of the A303 culminating in a tragedy!   This is the section of the A303 where drivers slow down to take pictures of the Stone Circle - "usually on the move" and is dangerous enough, but last weekend, we had the first fatality which locals fear, won't be the last.   It does appear that the unfortunate gentleman, Patrick Sturtivant, in this instance, got out of his car, crossed over the A303 to take that "once in a lifetime" photo which sent him to his demise.   Read the story in my previous posting "It is with regret".   The driver of the Mercedes involved in the incident, will have this on his conscience and will see the awful pictures for the rest of his life.   The thoughtless agreement by Wiltshire Council and English Heritage to close the A344 for financial gain i.e. to prevent drivers pitching up near to, or at the World Heritage Site, and take a "freebie" through the fence has made the area a very dangerous place to be....at least it was the safer option and even English Heritage can't do anything about human nature!!!
I know it was always their "VISION" to put Stonehenge back to the way it was thousands of years ago but.....hey! wake up E.H..... the world is a different place in 2014AD than it was in 2700BC!
It's now time for them to do something about the mess they've caused...be it bottle necks or traffic jams, something needs to be done about this section of the A303 fast.   English Heritage need to stop their dogmatic attitude, making decisions from a desk in London, and listen to local people.   They need to at least construct a BERM: a mound or bank of earth used as a barrier which can be built sympathetically and there are many ways this can be achieved......

I quote from a comment on our Facebook page from one Julian Beams who feels as strongly about all this as the rest of us living and working in this area...... 

 

"Julian Beames AS PREDICTED - This was my post on the 2nd May accompanied some photos of cars parked in the byway - QUOTE <<. I really hope we don't have a death or serious injury to a pedestrian this summer on the A303, but I fear the worst, having witnessed the scene. All the ingredients are there now..... Cars stopping in the byeway, heavy traffic, distracted pedestrians dodging between the cars to take a photo and foreign tourists looking the wrong way for cars......what a shambles! >>UNQUOTE....... On this occasion I am very sad to have been proven correct, but it was only a matter of time. This unfortunate person will be the first of many. I see pedestrians putting themselves at huge risk virtually every time I pass Stonehenge. It is no different from trying to cross a motorway on foot. The fact that the Inspector at the Public Inquiry ignored the obvious consequences of the closure of the A344 in terms of the increased risk that would be created by tourists taking photos on the A303 is so disappointing. If English Heritage had been forced to do any proper risk assessment on the effects of the closure on this aspect of public safety, then it would have shown that the risk was unacceptably high. Yet again, World Heritage Status has trampled on "proper due process". RIP Mr Sturtivant"
ENGLISH HERITAGE - GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!!!!