Stonehenge A303 Road Improvement Scheme

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced that the A303 Stonehenge tunnel scheme would not be progressed due to budgetary constraints.

Please see the Fixing the foundations document published by the Treasury.

Our statement in response to this announcement:

'There are of course difficult decisions to be made when it comes to national spending plans, but we regret the lost opportunity to reunite this globally important landscape and to significantly improve the experience for the millions of visitors who come to this unique site. We continue to believe a solution is needed to remove the hugely damaging surface road that blights Stonehenge and its surrounding landscape.'

At the 46^th meeting of the World Heritage Committee, it was decided that the Stonehenge tunnel scheme did not ‘constitute sufficient, ascertained or potential danger to warrant inclusion on the List of World Heritage in Danger.’

View documents relating to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting – July 2024.

The Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, has granted development consent for the A303 Stonehenge tunnel scheme.

The Secretary of State’s decision letter and the Development Consent Order can be viewed on the Planning Inspectorate’s A303 Stonehenge website.

A Statement of Matters has been published on the Planning Inspectorate website, inviting National Highways to respond to the five areas the Department for Transport wish to consider further.

Interested Parties will be invited to comment on these representations at a later date.

We are pleased the Government remains committed to addressing the problem of the current A303 and the damage it causes to the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.

Download and read the statement

The Transport Secretary is to re-determine the decision to make a Development Consent Order for the A303 Stonehenge scheme. Details of the re-determination process will be published in a ‘statement of matters’ – which will be made available on the Planning Inspectorate website. Our ambition for the Stonehenge landscape remains to address the damage caused by the current road as it passes through the landscape and to reunite the World Heritage Site.

A claim for Judicial Review about the decision granting development consent was brought and heard in June 2021. The Judicial Review is about the process of decision making, not the relative merits of the scheme. The court upheld two of the 10 grounds challenged, which had the effect of quashing the Development Consent Order. The government must decide how to respond.

Following two deadline extensions, the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, has granted development consent for the A303 Stonehenge tunnel scheme. We will continue to work alongside Historic England and English Heritage to ensure the scheme delivers on its promise to protect the World Heritage Site and brings benefits for both people and nature.

The Budget today included an announcement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, that the Government will invest (through ‘Road Investment Strategy 2’) in 'building a new two mile tunnel at Stonehenge to remove traffic from the iconic setting of Stonehenge'.

This is a significant step forward in resolving the damage caused to the World Heritage Site by the current A303.

However, we now await the Secretary of State for Transport’s decision on whether development consent (the planning application) will be granted. We expect an announcement to be made on, or before, 2 April 2020.

The examination phase of the planning application (Development Consent Order) for the proposed A303 road improvement scheme at Stonehenge has closed. The Examining Authority now has three months to make a recommendation to the Secretary of State, who will then have a further three months in which to announce a final decision.

Hilary McGrady, Director General of the National Trust said:

‘If designed and delivered with the utmost care, we believe that the proposed road scheme represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to reunite the Stonehenge Landscape - restoring relationships between monuments, removing so much of the sight and sound of traffic, creating space for nature and allowing people to explore more of this inspiring prehistoric landscape.

‘We are passionate about our role as custodians of the Stonehenge Landscape and are committed to ensuring its long-term protection as the development of this scheme progresses.

‘Throughout the development of the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down road scheme, we have been clear where we thought improvements and a greater level of detail were needed to enhance the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage Site.

’We have been working with Highways England to resolve these issues and have now received the assurances we were seeking. So, we have removed our objection to the compulsory acquisition of National Trust land needed for the scheme.

‘Like the majority of land held by the National Trust, our land at Stonehenge is held ‘inalienably’, meaning that it has special protection. Only in exceptional instances do we accept the compulsory acquisition of land in our care. At Stonehenge we believe the scheme has the potential to improve the Outstanding Universal Value of this important and unique place.

‘If the scheme is approved through the planning process, we will continue to work with Highways England and others to maximise public benefit from the scheme.’ 

We submitted our follow up response to Highways England's planning application for a road improvement scheme at Stonehenge. We’ll be participating fully in the planning process going forward and will expand upon our concerns as part of the Issues Specific Hearings. The Examining Authority review all the submissions ahead of their Issue Specific Hearings, which begin on 4 June.

Download the full written representation 

All the information submitted to the Examining Authority through the Examination phase of the DCO (planning) process can be viewed on the Planning Inspectorate's A303 Stonehenge website.

The Planning Inspectorate's Examining Authority held its Preliminary Meeting at Salisbury Racecourse on 2 April 2019. It then published an Examination Timetable, setting out key dates and deadlines. More information can be found on the National Infrastructure Planning website.

We take our role as custodians of the Stonehenge Landscape very seriously and have conducted four assessments of the Highways England proposals. Each was carried out using ICOMOS’ guidance on Heritage Impact Assessments for World Heritage Properties.

Please use the following links to download these reports – they are best read in number order.

1. Preliminary Outline Assessment 

2. Outline Assessment

3. Addendum to Outline Assessment

4. Assessment of aspects of preferred route

We responded to Highways England’s planning application (Development Consent Order or DCO) for the proposed A303 road improvement scheme at Stonehenge. In our submission, we’ve reiterated our belief in the potential benefits of the scheme but set out the areas where we think there is more work to be done. 

Download our relevant representation

We welcome the significant changes made in the supplementary consultation put forward by Highways England: removing the previously proposed link between two byways; widening the green bridge near Longbarrow; and changes to the Rollestone crossroads.

The consultation also clarified public rights of way proposals in the scheme, which we also welcomed, especially the correction of those on National Trust land.

We await the details of the final design from Highways England, which are expected to be submitted to the planning process this autumn.

Download full response

We welcome the work done by Highways England on the design of the proposed A303 road at Stonehenge. 

You can download our full response to the consultation here

We welcome the work by Highways England on the design of the proposed A303 road at Stonehenge. The options they have put forward go a long way towards protecting and enhancing the World Heritage Site, although there is more work to be done at this stage. 

In a joint statement with our partners at Historic England and English Heritage, we said:

‘We welcome the improvements made to the scheme and, with further work, believe it has the potential to protect and enhance the World Heritage Site if the design includes a 3.2km (2 mile) tunnel incorporating a 200m grass-covered canopy at the western end, steep sided cuttings and a sensitively located green bridge to hide the traffic and the road to the west. This will reunite a landscape that has been severed by the A303 for generations.

‘It is essential that the final design is right in all these areas to protect the unique landscape of the World Heritage Site. We particularly want the proposed green bridge near the current Longbarrow Roundabout to be wide enough to form an effective physical and visual link between important monuments in the landscape.

‘However, we are very concerned about the detrimental impact of traffic on the byways on the World Heritage Site and believe this will be made worse by the proposal to link existing byways after the surface A303 is removed. 

‘The World Heritage Site is internationally important, not just for Stonehenge itself but for the unique and rich concentrations of burial mounds and monuments in the landscape. This is a once-in-a generation opportunity to reunite this ancient landscape, giving people the opportunity to tread pathways used by our ancestors who built the monuments, to visit and appreciate the monuments and see and hear wildlife without the intrusion of the traffic and noise from the road.’

Together with Historic England and English Heritage, we welcome the announcement of the preferred route. We believe, if designed and located with the utmost care, it can deliver a lasting legacy for the World Heritage Site.

In a joint statement Historic England, the National Trust and English Heritage said:

'The Stonehenge World Heritage Site is internationally important not just for Stonehenge itself but for the unique and rich concentrations of burial mounds and monuments in the landscape. Brimming with nature, the open chalk grassland is also home to rare and endangered species of wildlife.
'This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reunite this ancient landscape which is currently severed by a huge volume of road traffic. 

'We welcome the amended route and believe it can, if designed and located with the utmost care, deliver a lasting legacy for the World Heritage Site and restore peace and tranquillity to the Stonehenge landscape.’

Protecting archaeology

'The route announced today will ensure the winter solstice alignment will be unspoilt by lights and traffic from the road. We also want to see the globally important archaeology protected, the settings of the ancient burial sites respected and the views between those sites restored. It is now critical to ensure that the benefits of this new route can be realised through careful design and mitigation of archaeological risks, particularly at the western portal of the tunnel and the approach road.

'We remain committed to working with all those with an interest in the World Heritage Site to protect it and help people to better enjoy and explore this iconic place. We believe that this road scheme, including a bored tunnel of at least 2.9km (1.8 miles) can achieve that aim by opening up and re-uniting the historic landscape.'

Our formal response to the public consultation on Highways England's plans for the Amesbury to Berwick Down section of the A303 – including the Stonehenge Tunnel, was published. 

Our formal response included the following: 

• A letter outlining our response
• Our full response
• An assessment of the impact on the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage Site, which consists on the following four documents (best read in order):

1. Preliminary Outline Assessment 

2. Outline Assessment

3. Addendum to Outline Assessment

4. Assessment of aspects of preferred route

There will be another round of consultation on Highways England’s more detailed proposed solution later in 2017 before a Development Consent Order application is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in 2018.

We produced a response to Highways England's route options, announced as part of the consultation for the A303 road improvement scheme in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The position was drafted with our partners at Historic England and English Heritage.

A year on from the Government's announcement of investment in a fully bored tunnel of at least 2.9km to remove a large part of the existing A303 from the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, we have produced a short film showing the difference that could make to the Stonehenge landscape.

Watch it on YouTube

Together with English Heritage, we commissioned a study to make a preliminary assessment of the potential impact of the proposed road improvements on the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage Site. 

Download and read the report

The Government has announced, as part of its Road Investment Strategy, that it will be investing in a new 2.9km tunnel to remove the A303 from the Stonehenge landscape.

Helen Ghosh, Director General of the National Trust, said: ‘The importance of this announcement today cannot be overstated. After many false starts and challenges, this does for the first time feel like a real opportunity to tackle the blight of the road that dominates the landscape of Stonehenge.
 
‘If designed well, putting the A303 into a tunnel of at least 2.9km will bring the Stonehenge landscape together once more, creating space for nature and improving the site’s tranquillity. I know there will be some sadness that people will no longer be able to see the stones from the road, but visitors will once again be able to hear the sounds of skylarks singing rather than the constant noise of traffic.
 
‘We’re committed to finding alternative ways for even more people to see the Stones on their journey and for future generations to experience and explore this inspiring prehistoric landscape.’

Dr Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage, said: ‘This will be the biggest single investment ever by Government in this country’s heritage and is truly a momentous decision. We felt so proud to close the A344 last year and build award-winning visitor facilities at Stonehenge. We have been campaigning for a tunnel for the past 30 years.’ 
 
We have been trying to find a solution for the A303 improvements since 1986 when Stonehenge became a World Heritage Site – recognition that it is one of the best known and most important prehistoric landscapes in the world.

‘It’s vital that any new scheme to put the A303 into a bored tunnel is located in the right place and designed to the best specification.  

‘This is about investing in the future. We have a responsibility to future generations to get this right as we provide a world class solution for a world class place.'