They are a disparate bunch. Archaeologists, environmentalists, historians, transport experts, countryside campaigners and druids.
But they will come together in the Strand in central London on Tuesday with a common purpose: to stop the bulldozers from, in their mind, wreaking havoc at one of the UK’s most iconic sites.
They will try to convince the high court over three days that the government’s plan to build a two-mile road tunnel close to the great circle of Stonehenge will permanently disfigure a unique and globally important landscape.
“It’s David and Goliath stuff,” said John Adams, the chair of the Stonehenge Alliance, which has fought against the tunnel and other road projects around the stones for more than 20 years. Though lots of disciplines are represented, they lack the heft of the government machine. “We’re up against the might of the Department for Transport, National Highways and so on. We’re a small organisation – mostly retired people. But the court case is critical. It’s the only thing keeping the earth diggers away,” he said.
So one of the complaints seems to be… that you won’t be able to see it from the road anymore, suggesting that the tunnel entrances will be out of sight of the monument. I haven’t seen arguments that it’ll disrupt the stability of the site or anything else either, so from the limited info I have, the complaints sound quite spurious.
I have to drive along this road from time to time. I’ve never experienced it moving smoothly. Partly there is also a slow down simply because people can see the site so there’s a fair amount of rubbernecking going on.
I’ve read the complaints against the tunnel and I still don’t really understand why people resist it.
It will mean that visiting Stonehenge will actually be a tranquil experience - at the minute all you can hear on the site itself is cars. In my understanding it will restore the site, not scar it. I really truly cannot understand why you wouldn’t go through with this.
And now, having said how I think it will benefit the site, let me just touch on the traffic issue. Traffic is APPALLING on the road - it’s the only artery moving people from South East to South West so it clogs up completely. It’s in DIRE need of improvement - and if that’s high quality public transport then fine too; but given how complicated HS2 has turned out I suspect roads or a ban on moving west SE to SW is the only two options we have.
Are there any hidden interests (e.g. environmental activists trying to make traffic a nightmare to discourage cars, someone able to profiteer from the current situation somehow, NIMBYs wanting to block the project due to some other location it affects and attacking it here because it seems easier)?