STAG Come of Age

Well, it seems that STAG - The Shrewton Traffic Action Group - has come of age.  Born of the frustration and chaos caused by the closure of the A344 at its junction with the A303 and the remodelling of the junctions at Longbarrow and Airman's Cross to pander to the needs of English Heritage, STAG began with a local focus.

The local focus was quite natural and an attempt to get something done quickly to ease the situation caused by large and sometimes very large vehicles trying to negotiate narrow village streets.  In Shrewton's case, this meant squeezing along roads with little or nothing in the way of footpaths, but close to shops, doctor's surgery and school - a recipe for disaster.   But the rat running was soon seen to be much wider spread than just Shrewton - affecting villages for miles around the epicentre of Stonehenge.

Moreover, the poor beggars who are using the rat runs really don't want to be using them themselves; they simply want to get from A to B in a reasonable time - and would you be any differnet in similar circumstances elsewher?  Of course not.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that they are a symptom of the problem and not the root cause.  Whilst we can treat the symptoms and ease things in the short term, we aren't going to solve the problem without treating the underlying disease - the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.   But both approaches need to be followed.

So STAG has evolved - it has two prongs to its campaign - to ease the situation on the local roads on the one hand, but to campaign at every level for SH2 - dualling and bypasses on the A303.

STAG has become the Stonehenge Traffic Action Group - you can find their new blog here.