So! Getting away at Easter is a given!

Or so it seems......So let me tell you about this latest Easter Break - sometimes I note, now called a "Bank Holiday" since for some it has lost the religious meaning and it's just a chance to eat chocolate!
This being the first longish break since Christmas and the schools having broken up a full 2 weeks prior to Easter weekend, it was certainly possible to "stagger" ones holiday providing a wider window to arrive at ones West country retreat. 
On Good Friday morning (or should I call that "bank holiday" Friday) according to https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcwiltshire  the A303 was already queued from Solstice Park and by 7 minutes past 7, vehicles were taking 1 hour 20 minutes to pass the Stonehenge section to Long Barrow roundabout!
Obviously, one would want to take the full advantage of the "bank holiday" (Easter to you and me!) and start the return journey east bound, sometime on bank holiday Monday and this is where it gets interesting because for the people who live in the village of Shrewton.....Great invention - the Sat Nav when it tells of "a queue ahead" and vehicles have the option to strike off early at the junction of the A303 and the B3083 at Winterbourne Stoke and then RAT RUN through our village using Salisbury Road as their main route, then through our High Street and back out via London Road.....remember those figures on a previous blog of 280,604 over Christmas?? 
Yesterday Easter Monday someone reported on our Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/StonehengeTrafficActionGroup/? holdups from the junction of the B390 from Chittern to get into the village and chaos in the centre of the village at our mini roundabout where the two lots of traffic converge and here is just one comment: " Paul Timlett Just the 10 hours of jams on the A303 today. 8:30 at night and it’s still slow moving or stationary. But hey there “might” be undiscovered archaeology somewhere. Possibly. So we mustn’t do anything. Tell that to the tens of thousands of people caught in today’s jams, and the probably hundreds of thousands caught in the jams over the last few weeks. Plus the tens of thousands who have to suffer the daily rat running. Ten hours of constant din, and counting.
10:40 at night and finally the rat running has stopped and we have peace at last. 13 hours after it all started"!!
All of this causing litter to be thrown from vehicle windows, poor air quality, and residents having to continually look out for speeding traffic when there is a gap in the rat run!
So! it's time for the Naysayers at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blick_Mead and http://stonehengealliance.org.uk/ to listen up and understand that we're in the "here and now" and there needs to be a balance between the living and the dead so that the A303 can be fixed helping the economy to the West country, stop the Rat Run and open up the World Heritage Site for all to enjoy!!!!

A303 Inspectorate video...

Here's how YOU can get involved in the future of the A303 past Stonehenge.....

https://youtu.be/BLWl2AbHXWo

Help us reduce the Rat Run through our village of Shrewton and make it a safer place to live.  Fixing the A303 past Stonehenge will help the economy in the West Country and open up the World Heritage Site for all to enjoy!

Remember those figures of just one of the four ways to access/exit the village: 280,604 vehicles in just 16 weeks!   This from the SID installed on London Road and not during a school holiday either.

Thanks for getting involved.

I appeal....please get on board and fight this!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/02/concerns-grow-as-plans-for-a303-road-tunnel-past-stonehenge-enters-new-phase This appeared in The Guardian on Thursday of this week.  STAG attended this meeting with just three representatives, but this was neither the forum nor the place to put our case because it was supposed to be a "preliminary" Hearing and should not have developed into a platform for Stonehenge Alliance to react in the way in which they did outside their spokesperson. 
I appeal....STAG... cannot do this on our own and so we need your help if we are to improve our lives currently blighted by ran running traffic from the current state of the A303!
http://stonehengealliance.org.uk/ This is the link to Stonehenge Alliance who are presently preparing their case against the scheme, and are sending a blanket e-mail all around the world....to people who know nothing of the area, appealing for funds to fight their case!!   We, who need this scheme, should get on board and fight for something to be done about the A303 at Stonehenge, which IS NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE, running 84% over capacity.   This means, from the eastern outskirts of Amesbury, a high percentage of vehicles are seeking alternative routes which takes in unsuitable narrow roads running through Bulford, Larkhill, Shrewton and Chitterne villages with Shrewton being arguably the worst affected.   As previously reported, numbers of vehicles using just one of the four entrances to our village of Shrewton, over a 4 month period, registered 280,604, representing 1800 per day, using our High Street and Tanners Lane!   We have a paucity of pavements, elderly, mothers with prams and children, using our roads and something needs to be done about this situation!   The followers of Stonehenge Alliance need to take this on board along with their ideals and should of necessity give as much credence to this obvious issue, as they do to their protestations relating to possible damage to the "as yet undiscovered archaeology" in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site!   The term "Statement of Common Ground" was used at the meeting rather a lot, but I'm afraid Stonehenge Alliance did not appear to understand what a "Statement of Common Ground" entails.  It appears they have no common ground with any of the parties, who have a differing view.
HERE IS THE LINK TO GET INVOLVED and have your say at the OPEN FLOOR HEARINGS:
https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/wp-content/ipc/uploads/projects/TR010025/TR010025-000511-190304%20TR010025%20Rule%206%20letter%20-%20Cover%20FINAL.pdf
Yes, it's a huge document and you do not need to read all of it, but application to speak at the Open Floor Hearing must be put forth by the 18th April.   More information will be available soon, as to when or which forum at which we need to speak.
The names of the panel can be found on the link above, and I am informed that the Forum is extremely formal and one must address Madam Chair directly.   She is clearly very experienced and was quick to take control last Tuesday of the "shouty people" who could have turned the Hearing into a platform for Stonehenge Alliance!!!