Government Slopes Shoulders On Stonehenge Bypass

We've been wondering how HMG would fund the Stonehenge to Berwick Down Scheme for the A303.  The reassurances that the money "would be found and ring-fenced" have always sounded a bit hollow and very fuzzy and it seems our concerns were justified.

Take a look on the Winterbourne Stoke Parish Council website at their latest story.

So, HMG are now looking to private finance to design, build fund and maintain this section of road.   Given the record of PFI's in the past, this prospect fills us with a rising sense of dread.  Worse still, the projected timescales will certainly be missed - leading to many more years of rat-running and congestion.

The alternative, of course, is to go for a lower cost above ground route...

It's In Your Best Interests...

Whenever I hear someone tell me that: "It's in your best interests to do X, or Y," alarm bells ring very loudly indeed.  In my experience, true philanthropy is a very rare quality and what these individuals really mean is:  "It's in my best interests for you to do X or Y.  Selfish self-interest is a powerful driver indeed.

When such a statement is made by a politician, then the alarm bells ring more loudly than ever.  That's what is going on at the moment; a cacophony of alarm bells, whistles and sirens are sounding off. A great deal of effort is being made to persuade many of those with an interest in doing something about the untenable situation of the A303 to pull together to support the tunnel under Stonehenge and the northern bypass of Winterbourne Stoke and to put pressure on Highways England to adopt that solution.

Bearing in mind the opening to this post, whose best interests are served by this?  It would certainly provide a solution to the traffic problems, but would it provide the best solution; particularly for Winterbourne Stoke?  What would benefit Winterbourne Stoke the most?  Forgetting for a moment the options on offer,  I would suggest the denizens of Winterbourne Stoke want some or all of the following:

- a reduction in traffic volumes within the village;
- a reduction of traffic noise within the village;
- a reduction in traffic pollution across the village
- no more damage to the environment
- no more damage to the known and unknown archaeology of the area.

The best way to achieve that is to remove the A303 from the equation.  Remove it entirely, absolutely and unequivocally from the equation.  To do that there would seem only two alternatives.  Dig a tunnel from east (NOT west) of Countess Roundabout and emerge, blinking into the daylight, having bankrupted the nation, somewhere between Yarnbury Castle and the A303 Deptford interchange, or simply re-route the A303 south of Amesbury past Boscombe Down, through the Woodford Valley on a couple of magnificent and architecturally inspiring viaducts, then rejoining the route of the current A36 towards the Deptford interchange.  Whilst the super-long tunnel option is unaffordable in anyone's book, even Highways England admit the southern route would be a substantially cheaper than either of the tunnel-based proposals on the table.

Now given that many of the archaeological community, locally, nationally and internationally, are against the proposed tunnel option and bypasses for Winterbourne Stoke, would want to expand the boundaries of the current World Heritage Site to accommodate both known and suspected archaeology and want to remove the A303 from the entirety of the area, then clearly, we have something in common.  Whilst we have never been natural bed-fellows in the past, perhaps now is the time for those immediately affected to cosy-up with each other?  Our selfish self-interest is best served by removing the A303 in it's entirety.  A tunnel with a northern bypass or a tunnel with a southern bypass are very much secondary and tertiary options which satisfy few, if any, of the desires and aspirations of Winterbourne Stoke.

Now the politicos will tell you that this isn't on the agenda.  Accept what you are being offered and let us get on with it!  They would, wouldn't they.  Don't forget though, that when considering traffic issue, nothing has a better turning circle than a politician - especially ones trying to balance the books. 

Those That Walk Amongst Us

We predicted, some time ago, that the announcement that the Government wished to push ahead with improving the A303/A30/A358 corridor to the West Country would flush out every failed and ill-considered proposal that has ever seen the light of day over the last half century or so.  Sadly, but all too predictably, we have not been disappointed.

We've said, all along, that our goal is to dual the A303, bypass the beleaguered village of Winterbourne Stoke and improve the traffic situation on local roads, particularly those in and around Shrewton to our north.  However, in achieving our goal, our second aim is to ensure the best possible environment for the whole of the World Heritage Site; much of which lies within our Parish boundaries - almost certainly making us the most visited village in England, on a per capita basis, as English Heritage's Stonehenge Visitor's Centre lies within our boundaries. Also lying within our perimeter lies what is arguably the most important feature of the World Heritage Site - not Stonehenge, which is something of a "Jonny Come Lately", but the Longbarrow which pre-dates even the earliest phase of Stonehenge by half a millennium.

Actually, only the left hand side of the Longbarrow lies within the parish of Winterbourne Stoke, the right hand (south eastern) side lies in the parish of Wilsford Cum Lake.

You'd have thought that there would be a common view, locally, to enhance this landscape.  Not a bit of it, it seems.  Though to be fair, no-one has yet, in recent times, sought the views of the locals in any consistent way.   That said, there seem to be several favoured alternatives locally:

A - Any solution that gets rid of the traffic jams;
B - A tunnel of 2.9km;
C - An even longer tunnel;
D - Dualling along the existing route, but sinking it in a ditch;
E - Putting the road way to the north, across the southern edge of the Salisbury Plain training area - to the north of Larkhill;
F - Putting the road south of Amesbury on any one of half a dozen routes.

The first solution (A) is borne of desperation by those who live along the A303 - understandable, but it may not help preserve our heritage.  (B) and (C) achieve the aims of dualling the A303 and taking the road out of the World Heritage Site.  The longer the tunnel the better, in environmental and heritage terms, but it comes at a cost.  Perhaps the biggest advantage is that it would enable ALL vehicles, including most of the coaches used by English Heritage and the risible Land Train, to be excluded from the environment.  Of course, you would need to provide some mechanised transport for the disabled and elderly, but every other bugger could walk into the landscape from the Visitor's Centre, Larkhill, Amesbury, etc.  The route of the A303 could be returned to a green Bridleway throughout the WHS

(E) is an interesting option.  The Armed Forces would kick and scream, but even with the current re-basing exercise, it's hard to justify still needing as much space to exercise our much diminished Forces as we did at the height of WWI and WWII.  It would be an inexpensive route, with few landowners to deal with and would remove the A303 from the WHS.  Far too sensible an option to be considered.

(F) looks superficially promising, until you get stuck into the detail. There are way too many vested interests that would help kill it off.  It may have been a viable option 50 years ago when the idea of improving things was first mooted, but the world has moved on - unlike many of the proponents of this schemes.

Finally, we have option (D).  About the only positive thing that can be said about this option is that it is cheap and cheerful.  It does nothing to enhance the environment of the World Heritage site - and here it is important to stress one thing - whether or not the landscape around Stonehenge remains as a World Heritage site is immaterial to the argument of how the area is crossed.  It comes down to whether WE as a region, WE as a nation, want to leave something valuable to posterity - or simply want to bung in a cheap and nasty road and to hell with the consequences.   Those that are pushing for this option are doing so on the basis of simple cost (certainly not cost in the broader sense, or else they would soon realise how utterly indefensible their position is).

So, do they have a point when it comes to pounds shillings and pence?  Lets look at just a couple of hard facts.  Even the 2.9 km tunnel is going to cost at least £2billion.  Now that is a big number and I can't imagine what it would look like as a pile of fivers, but is it really excessive in the greater scheme of things?  Well let's compare it with something else equally controversial.

Now I could choose the cost of membership of the EU as the comparator, but the booklet of facts on staying in the EU, or leaving, dropped through the door the other day and when I opened this piece of Tory propaganda, I found all the facts were missing from my copy - and the same was true in every other copy I've looked at, so that isn't going to be overly helpful.   What else might be a good comparator?  Something else that is expensive and controversial - like the UK's Foreign Aid budget.

In 2013, the UK spent 0.7% of GDP, £11.4bn on foreign aid - money spent that does not benefit the UK directly and some would argue is often misspent, maladministered and way to much.  We can point the finger of blame at the Lib-Dems for pushing the 0.7% of GDP target in Parliament.  The Tories and Labour seem happy with the spend, through the Greens would like to increase it to 1% of GDP.  UKIP on the other hand, want to reduce the Foreign Aid budget to 0.2% of GDP and spend the rest within the UK.  In a time of austerity, it's hard to justify spending anything not of direct benefit to UK citizens, but I digress...

Back to a fact or two.   Back in 2014, we gave India £279 million in Foreign Aid and that was 40% down on 2011.   India has its own space program, it has a planned mission to Mars, and the whole program costs £500 million to run per year. So, in bald terms, the money we put into the Indian economy was equivalent to more than 50% of the cost of their entire space program or could have funded 7-8 missions to Mars. We may have been funding it entirely prior to 2011.

Now DfID will argue that the money was targeted on things the Indian's wouldn't have spent their own money on anyway, but the bottom line was that India had a choice on how to spend its money and chose a space program over health and education.   I'm sure a little digging would uncover even more egregious examples, but this one will do for the moment.

So, the 2.9 km Stonehenge tunnel option might cost £2bn at December 2014 prices, but over the 40 years (more like 50, but lets be conservative) that there has been talk of improving the A303, we've probably ploughed a demonstrably un-needed £11.6 billion into Indian Foreign Aid. During the same period, we've probably ploughed close to half a trillion pounds into Foreign Aid in total.

Well, there you have it.  A one-off spend of £2bn on a tunnel for Stonehenge is peanuts in the greater scheme of things and can easily be afforded by cutting the Foreign Aid budget from those countries, like India, that can well-afford to look after their own population's interests, but choose to ignore them.  Of course, digressing again, there are real emergencies and situations that call for Foreign Aid and I wouldn't want to stop that, but we need to spend more wisely.

We have those that walk amongst us who believe a £2 billion tunnel is an extravagance, whilst their political bed-fellows were responsible for the concept of blowing 0.7% of GDP on Foreign Aid without any clear demonstration of need.  I would beg you to treat these people gently; their sanity is surely in question.

Contract awarded for the A303 between Amesbury and Berwick Down (Stonehenge)

There hasn't been a great deal of new information to write about on the A303 improvement scheme in recent months.  That isn't to say that nothing has been going, far from it.  It's a bit like watching swans on a dark, glassy pool.  They move gently and with supreme grace, but you don't see the furious paddling underneath.   So it has been with the A303, with much work and consultation going on in the background.  So it is a great pleasure to be able to record another step forward in the shape of an annoncement from Highways England:

"As part of the £15 billion five year Road Investment Strategy the government has pledged to improve this section of the A303, including a tunnel near Stonehenge and a bypass of the village of Winterbourne Stoke.

Highways England today announced that a package of work with an estimated value of £17.5m has been awarded to Atkins/Arup joint venture to develop options to take to public consultation and ultimately a preferred route announcement. Subject to statutory procedures, the proposed scheme is on target for construction work to start by April 2020.

Project Manager, Andrew Alcorn, leading the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down scheme, said:

This award takes us another step closer to our commitment to deliver the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down Improvement Scheme.

Now we have Atkins/Arup on board to help with developing options for the scheme and pre-construction planning, we will be able to take the next step towards making this scheme a reality.

Tony Marshall, Global Highways Business Leader, Arup said:

We are delighted to be a part of the team tasked with helping to relieve congestion and improving the setting of a world renowned heritage site. By working collaboratively we can produce a transport solution that is sensitive to an area that is of immense cultural and environmental importance.

Lesley Waud, Strategic Highways Market Director, Atkins added:

This is a much needed scheme that will play a pivotal role in relieving congestion and improving journey times. We are delighted to work in partnership with Arup in delivering this vital project that will not only generate major benefits to better meet the needs of the travelling public, but will also support local economic growth in the long term.

The contract has been awarded under Highways England’s Collaborative Delivery Framework (CDF). Following the preferred route announcement Highways England will draw up a development consent order application, which will be examined in public by the Planning Inspectorate, before a final decision by the Transport Secretary.

The A303 trunk road links London with the South West and is a key route for long distance commercial and holiday traffic. The scheme will unlock a pinch-point that has restricted the economy of the South West while enhancing the world heritage site at Stonehenge. This scheme is an integral part for creating a A303 ‘expressway’ to the South West region."

We will await further developments with great interest and report them as and when they arise.

Meeting the Minister - A Positive Step Forward

On Monday 3rd August 2015, Stonehenge Traffic Action Group, together with a raft of other stakeholders, were invited to attend a round-table briefing in Amesbury with Andrew Jones MP on the state of play regarding the A303/A30/A358 corridor upgrade plan.

Andrew, in addition to being the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, is a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Transport with the dubious honour of having the brief to deliver the road investment strategy.  He can't help being a Yorkshireman and from the "wrong" side of the Pennines.

The meeting didn't begin to auspiciously.  Before the Minister arrived, I was accosted by a member of Amesbury Council, who pompously announced that this meeting was very much focusing on Amesbury and the Amesbury end of any road improvements.  As I say, he was a member - of the council.

Thankfully, this wasn't the case, with the Minister making quite clear that he was discussing the entirety of the Countess Roundabout to Berwick Down section of the A303 scheme. 

The meeting demonstrated that most parties understand the vital need to improve the A303, that it is part of the larger corridor plan and to fail to deliver the Stonehenge section would mean the whole strategic plan would fail.  Failure, this time, seems not to be an option - but we've heard similar assurances in the past.

A consensus is building that something has to be done, which in a way is a major step forward.  Stakeholders, STAG included, are holding bilateral meetings with each other to ensure that there are no surprises and issues are dealt with early.  

What were the key points emerging from the meeting?  Well, although there has been much talk of tunnels, nothing is yet set in stone.  Highways England are looking at all the options previously considered, eliminating those that have little chance of success and focusing in on the best option.  They will submit this and all the other information as part of the Development Consent Order process, which replaces a Public Inquiry.  The re will be an examination of the facts and figures in public, but their is no adversarial element to the DCO process.  This process has already begun and should take 5 years to complete.  It clearly involves a heck of a lot of work and Highways England expressed a wish to engage with stakeholders throughout this process.

A lot of key issues were raised.  Perhaps the most important for all locally was what happens between now and when any project comes to fruition.  A lot of the discussion focused on the need to improve both the Countess and Longbarrow roundabouts - neither of which are allowing traffic flow during peak periods and the tailbacks encourage rat running.  The minister seemed to take that on board, though time will tell if they achieve anything.

As far as the Longbarrow to Berwick Down section went, they are focusing on the northern route (ie north of the current A303).  Those representing Winterbourne Stoke pointed out that we expected a lot more consideration being given to sound-proofing the section that ran across the Till valley to protect the village from road noise.  It was noted that the previous scheme involved raising the road on a causeway - bizarre given the history of the River Till - which was no longer acceptable.  It had been done to try and get rid of a lot of the spoil from the previously planned tunnel.  We raised the issue of the phosphatic chalk discovered along the possible tunnel route and the suggestion that disturbing it might release radon.  It was clear that both Andrew Jones and Highways England were well aware of this and they commented that appropriate ways of disposing of such material would need to be found.

The only question that Highways England didn't answer, in fact they were told NOT to answer it by Andrew Jones, was one we asked for information.  We asked how deep the tunnel might be, below ground level, at two points:  Stonehenge Bottom and at its closest predicted point to Stonehenge itself.  We indicated that at this early stage, we weren't after specifics; just a general indication of depth - were we talking a metre, 10 metres or 100 metres.   Given that Highways England have been talking about a tunnel 2.9km long - not 2 to 3 km but 2.9km, we do find it a little bit odd that they aren't prepared to give a similarly important estimate on depth at this stage.  At the end of the day, the depth of the excavation for the tunnel roof is going to be the measurement that is going to have to be defended the most in terms of the probability, or not, of damaging as yet undiscovered buried features.  Like the tunnel length, this sort of discussion is best started early, so at least the most specious arguments are rapidly surfaced and dismissed.

The only note of dissent came from Amesbury Abbey, in relation to how Highways England might change the Countess Roundabout as part of the overall scheme.  The suggestion was that the A303 would cross above the A345 at a raised level.  The objection here was that this would increase sound levels experienced by elderly residents of Amesbury Abbey.  A rational concern, but one which could surely be alleviated by careful screening and road surface selection?  Like many of the possible concerns, lets get them out in the open now, identify solutions and move on.  Throwing Teddy's in corners will get us nowhere fast.

We all know it isn't going to be easy; there are a lot of vested interests.  There are some for whom no compromise is acceptable and yet compromise we must have - the transport needs of the living and for generations yet to come have to be balanced with the need for preservation of things built by generations long dead, and quality of life has to be balanced with improved access to part of mankind's rich heritage.  It's a huge, huge ask, but we are prepared to play our part in building the consensus that is needed to make this work.

It rather begs the question, dear reader.  Are YOU?

Dan Snow, The History Man, Spouting Nonsense As Fast As He Can!

Oh dear, what a performance.  Back on Tuesday, 17th March 2015,  the Stonehenge Alliance (aka the Stonehenge Aliens), a somewhat befuddled collective of the well-meaning, but easily confused,  pitched up at Byway 12, near to Stonehenge, to launch their campaign and showcase their tame celebrity - Dan Snow, the History Man.

 
Now whilst there were a few journalists around to witness events, the biggest Press presence was that of the BBC in the form of Paul Clifton, BBC South Today's traffic correspondent and local resident with a camera crew.  Now it must be said that Paul has been scrupulously impartial in his reporting of issues surrounding the A303 at Stonehenge; often to the frustration of us members of STAG.

I was curious to understand the ethics of the BBC interviewing Dan Snow - who seems to do rather a lot of TV and book work for them.  That's perhaps a point for others, particularly BBC management, to ponder.  Perhaps, to restore confidence in their impartiality, they might want to consider getting Jeremy Clarkson and the Top Gear team to do a bit of off-roading through the World Heritage Site (WHS)?  Then again, given the current fuss about Jezza, perhaps not...

...but Captain Slow and the Hamster would suffice!

If you want to read a bit more about the nonsense Dan Snow and the Stonehenge Aliens were putting forward during his interviews, you can read it here on our sister blog for the Stonehenge Traffic Action Group. The key message seems to be that they want to persuade UNESCO to put pressure on the government to abandon plans for a tunnel under Stonehenge.  Indeed, Dan Snow was, apparently, pushing the line that he would prefer to leave the A303 in its current undualed state past Stonehenge rather than put it into a tunnel that might at least remove a view of the road from a large part of the WHS and achieve one of UNESCO's aims for the WHS.

Part of the problem when talking to the Stonehenge Aliens is that they can't seem to come up with a collective story about what they actually want.  Some want to remove the A303 entirely from the WHS landscape, others want to ban a tunnel at all costs for fear it would: alter the water table, cause Stonehenge to sink into the ground/fall over, attract aliens, cause Salisbury Cathedral to flood, add to global warming and increase the cost of cheese.  Please delete or add to these scare stories as appropriate.  A few of them seem to support the idea of a dual-carriageway tunnel, providing it starts and ends outside the WHS.  However, few of the latter have thought through their argument.  Whilst the present WHS has clear boundaries, some leeway should be given to the possibility of further, related,  archaeological discoveries beyond the present confines of the WHS; particularly between the two geographical features that define the sitelines to the east and the west - Beacon Hill on the Hampshire/Wiltshire border and Little Down, west of Yarnbury Castle where Salisbury Plain falls away towards Deptford - we'll come back to this a bit later.

 Living in Winterbourne Stoke, the NIMBY in me says that I too would prefer to remove the A303 from the landscape - either by routing it miles to the north, or stuffing it into a very long tunnel that goes under the village and Stonehenge.  Unfortunately, many in the Stonehenge Alliance are so fixated on preserving the past, that they cannot entertain the needs of the present or the future.  Nor can may of them contemplate the need for pragmatism and compromise - nor cost.  Whilst the Chancellor might have announced that austerity was over in yesterday's budget, he didn't mean he had a bottomless purse to improve the A303.

It's perhaps worth raising a few key points here.  First, the Stonehenge Alliance are objecting to a plan that doesn't yet exist in any real detail.  All we know so far is that the government have set aside £1.3 billion for a tunnel, which they suggest would be a minimum of 2.8km (1.8 miles) long.  That sounds a lot of money, but when you consider the Lærdal Tunnel in Norway, currently the World's longest road tunnel at 24.5km , cost only £150 million between 1995 and 2000 - then £1.3 billion might buy a bit more than 2.9 km of tunnel!

Second, UNESCO love tunnels - Fact.  Only two sites in the world have ever lost WHS status.  One in Oman which was de-listed at the request of the Omani government and the second was in Dresden in relation to a site near the River Elbe.  The Dresden authorities wanted to improve the flow of traffic over the Elbe, UNESCO were against a bridge and proposed a tunnel instead, the Dresden authoriies stuck two fingers in the air and built the bridge anyway.  As a consequence, UNESCO finally delisted the WHS in June 2009.  So, the good news is, it's hard to see how UNESCO could possibly favour leaving the current A303 in the WHS, when even a short tunnel could improve the landscape.

Third, if by some chance Stonehenge Alliance kick up enough of a fuss to gain UNESCO attention and overturn UNESCO's preference for hiding obtrusive roads underground, then UNESCO may choose to make the threat of removal of WHS status - it could happen.  The next UK government, sniffing the prospect of a massive cash saving, may be tempted to call UNESCO's bluff and get the Stonehenge WHS de-listed.  A massive own-goal for the Stonehenge Alliance and a slap in the face of STAG and the local population who wish to both improve the current road situation and conserve the WHS.  No doubt the Aliens will point out that the land either side of the A303 is owned by the National Trust and is inviolate.  That is true.  It is equally true that a determined government, even a coalition, could overturn such protection for the greater good of the nation and build an on-line dual carriageway.  Now whilst such a cheap and cheerful option would be very popular to some in the local community and those who travel the route daily from further afield, I would find the prospect horrific.  Whilst I don't believe this is a credible or realistic option, it is possible.  To my mind, it is also the worst possible outcome for the WHS.

Fourth, whilst I and others might share the wish that the A303 could be re-routed outside the WHS (as it is now, now or as it might one day be expanded to be),  that isn't on offer. Period, full-stop.It is NOT on offer.

There is another option which might just achieve everyone's aims.  Indeed, I suggested it to Dan Snow just before his interview with Paul Clifton.  Dan had, quite rightly in my view, expressed the most sensible thing he said all morning.  That was his belief that the Stonehenge WHS had a unique national, indeed global, significance and value and should be protected.  I suggested that we could test this shared view in a very pragmatic way: set up a public subscription, as the Victorians used to do to fund major works.  The international response to the subscription appeal would prove once and for all whether the concept of the Stonehenge WHS had any value at all.  Do people really value their heritage?  If not' let's just proceed as has been proposed.

Of course, let's not forget the fact that last August, Dan Snow and his wife, the heiress Lady Edwina Grosvenor, the second child of the Duke of Westminster, intimated that they don't want any possible inheritance to be a burden to their children and might give it away to charity.  Admirable stuff that.  Now, the Duke of Westminster is pretty high up the UK rich list and has a bob or two, an estimated fortune of about £8.5 billion.  That would buy an awful lot of tunnel - about 17.5 km.  Perhaps the idea of a "Duke of WestminsterGlobal Heritage Tunnel" might be an appealing legacy - especially to someone who made their fortune because of land? 

Going back to my earlier point of a long tunnel that crossed the current and any probable future sitelines of an expanded WHS, then the Duke of Westminster's legacy could easily pay for the 13.5 km of tunnel needed to cross the obvious geographical features and still leave some pocket money for the children and grandchildren.  It's just a suggestion and I wouldn't want the Westminster's to feel under any obligation...

I think, however, it is only fair to leave the last word to the "opposition" - the Stonehenge Alliance...

...as they clearly suggest here. Please contact UNESCO and show your support for dualling the A303 - preferably in a tunnel!  You should also sign up to the STAG campaign!

Tutt Tutt - Blinkered Views and Lack of Academic Rigour

In the last post, we suggested that the fruit-loops were coming out to play, as indeed some did.  This month has seen a bunch of academics and antiquarians pushing the most egregious example of illogical thinking I have seen in a long time.

Today, the Daily Telegraph carried an article about three such individuals, Mr David Jacques of the University of Buckingham, Prof Tim Darvill of Bournemouth University and Andy Rhind-Tutt of the Amesbury Museum and Heritage Trust spouting an awful lot of claptrap-dressed up as science regarding the discovery of the latest-dated Mesolithic encampment ever found in the UK at a site a mile and a half to the south of Stonehenge at a place called Blick Mead.  Indeed, if I was a Vice Chancellor at either of these universities I would be asking some serious questions about the logical reasoning abilities and lack of academic rigour of some of my staff.

There is no doubt that the discovery at Blick Mead is interesting, it certainly is, but the arguments put forward by the academics are facile and disingenuous in the extreme.  Firstly. they posit that the proposed A303 tunnel, a mile and half away, is going to have an instant and massive detrimental effect to the archaeology, whereas the 6,000 years of development much closer to the Blick Mead site, and also impacting on the local water table - such as construction and redevelopment of the town of Amesbury itself, the massive developments at Solstice Park the runway at Boscombe Down (to be fair, 2 miles from Blick Mead) and even the A303 itself - have had no discernible impact on the archaeology.

Second, even if a tunnel were to adversely impact on this new archaeology, does it matter?  Well, only if the periods of history and pre-history favoured by Jacques, Darvill and Rhind-Tutt are the be-all-and-end-all of archaeology; which of course they are not.  The reality is very different of course, as everything that happened prior to you reading this line, happened in the past - whether it it was 10,000 years ago or 10 femtoseconds ago - it is all worthy of study by archaeologists.  All of it is important and all of it valuable, but to suggest one element is more important than another is arrogance in the extreme.  Importance is purely a matter of opinion - not fact.

Third, as someone with an interest in more recent history, I could equally argue that the role of the World Heritage Site and its environs, from 1914 to the present day, is of much greater national and international importance because of its involvement in WWI and WWII and thus national survival and the preservation of the free-world, than are any other events or structures in the area. I could argue that, but my argument would be as irrelevant and ill-considered as the arguments of Jacques, Darvill and Rhind Tutt.

You could look at all this another way - and perhaps we should.  Things that are planned and built today become the archaeological sites of tomorrow.  That would, of course, include any tunnel to bypass Stonehenge.  It's fame is already global and it isn't yet built.  Picture a time several thousand years past when someone had the inspiration to build something unique in wood on a greenfield site north west of Amesbury.  There were probably a bunch of naysayers complaining about loss of open-space amenities such as grazing or hunting, and their descendants millennia later were still bitching on about the evils of change when the wood was replaced with stone and the stones were re-arranged.  Change never suits everyone.

However, if it wasn't for change, for man shaping his environment to meet his current and future needs, there would be no science of archaeology at all.  Ironic that isn't it; the obsession with preserving the past prevents change and the creation of history.

It also means that, no matter where you were to stuff the A303 - along, its current line, or north, or south of it, it is going to affect some archaeology, all of it important to someone - unless it goes through somewhere that has never felt the touch of the hand of man.  To be honest, the only place where this can be pretty much guaranteed in the WHS is - yes - underground.  A tunnel of such magnificent proportions that it dwarfs its antecedents - a man-made wonder of the 21st century and piece of premier archaeology of the future.  What better legacy for a World Heritage Site.

Now, how about the red algae, Hildenbrandia rivularis, found at Blick Mead that gives the flint a pink appearance.  It's unusual in the UK, but it is found throughout Europe and beyond, most frequently, it would seem, in countries and regions with a high degree of forestation and little farming.  That rather begs the question if the reason it is so unusual in the UK is simply down to the level of deforestation and agriculture.  When you dig a little deeper into the story, yet again, there is a degree of selectivity in the facts that are presented.  Yes, Hildenbrandia rivularis is very dependent on warmish hard water, but it is also very, very sensitive to phosphate levels in the water, phosphates that are applied to farmland all around Stonehenge, phosphates that arise from human and animal waste across the catchment area, phosphates that leach out of graveyards often located close to streams and rivers.  Perhaps we should replant Salisbury Plain with trees,  depopulate the whole area, disinter the dead and ban all forms of farming?

There is an even more bizarre possible explanation for Hildenbrandia rivularis being at Blick Mead - the building of Stonehenge itself.  How is that possible?  Well, when you look at the distribution of this algae round the UK, it is most common in Yorkshire and the east and west of Wales.  The map below shows the distribution, though apologies for the small size of the dots.  I'm sure you will note that the sites in west Wales are very close to Carn Goedog, the site of origin of Stonehenge's Blue stones.  So, there is a chance that the Hildenbrandia rivularis hitched a ride on the stones as they made their way the 160 miles to Stonehenge.  That would, of course, mean they are an introduced species and, some would say, ought to be exterminated.

As for Mr Rhind-Tutt and his tall tale of a "tunnel with one exit lane."  It exists only in the convoluted recesses of his imagination.  But if the government could construct the the tunnel 4 lanes in each direction instead of the proposed 2, for the same £1.3bn, most of the folks in the local area will be well-pleased.

Banish Bypass Bullshit

One of the things we have always been aware of is just how emotive the whole issue of the A303 and the World Heritage Site is.  The positive news (to us) of funding being found for the A303 and a tunnel to get it through the World Heritage Site, as well as the bypass for Winterbourne Stoke and all the other beleaguered communities along its route is seen as an announcement about the end of the world by a few.

Some of them are genuinely concerned but ill-informed, others appear to be one slice short of a sandwich and some appear to be simply malicious.  The one thing that many of them have in common is their propensity to spout nonsense and live in a world where financial constraints, employment, health, public opinion and the laws of nature have no meaning.

From the moment we started this blog, our stated intention was to challenge factual inaccuracies, cant or hyperbole when it came to all issues relating to the A303.  We've done so without fear, or favour, and have regularly taken to task English Heritage, the Highways Agency and Wiltshire Council.

Given some of the comments that we and other STAG members have received over the last 24 hours it is clear that this sort of effort is going to be needed more than ever now there seems to be a fairly strong possibility of the work going ahead.  So today, we announce the start of our "Banish Bypass Bullshit" campaign.
 

So, every time our attention is drawn to those seeking to halt the A303 improvements by use of bullshit, we will seek out those experts who can provide the facts and hard evidence that will rebut their specious claims and publish it.  What we want is evidence and fact, not ill-informed opinion or outright bigotry.  Of course, we have a heart and when we come across those who are, quite clearly, in need of professional help of a type we cannot provide, we promise to gently help steer them towards the arms of those who can.

Already we have seen some odd statements from the sort of folk who were against digging the channel tunnel in case the roof caved in and southern England got flooded, or against driving at all because such speeds would stop us breathing.  If you qualify as one of these people or organisations, we are on your case!

Breakfast With Nick Clegg at Stonehenge

Well, not exactly.  It's a bit of hyperbole to say that I actually had breakfast with the Deputy Prime Minister - I was up at Stonehenge this morning for the BIG announcement, as was Nick Clegg, and I was stood fairly close to him with a cup of coffee, which might pass for breakfast, but I never actually got to speak with him.  Never mind, we were all around for a common purpose - to give interviews to the Press.

Before getting up to Stonehenge, I had an assignation with a lovely lady called Rebecca Rooney from BBC Wiltshire, for an interview on the A303 funding announcement.  We met up on the forecourt of the Bell Inn, Winterbourne Stoke, with the fast-moving, early morning, commuter traffic providing an "interesting" backdrop.  We had the usual mix of large HGVs travelling at well over the 40 mph limit to help them get up the hills on either side of the village.  We had school kids using the light-controlled crossing with fast moving vehicles bearing down on them with seemingly little realisation that there was a crossing there at all.  Then we had the usual nightmare of villagers trying to get out of the village onto the A303 - with one taking almost 10 minutes to find a nearly safe gap into which to pull out.

I'll even forgive Rebecca for calling me Mr Churchill - perhaps I should go into politics after all and give John Glenn MP a run for his money?

So what's the big deal?  Well, the Government announced that it was going to be earmarking some £15 billion for important road projects across the UK.  Its worth contrasting that sum with the £17 billion earmarked (so far) for the HS2 - and bear in mind that only 10% of goods traffic and a fraction of passenger traffic is shipped by rail.

Of the £15 billion, some £2 billion has been ear-marked for the A303 and £1.3 billion earmarked for a tunnel under Stonehenge - though it isn't clear if the £1.3 billion is separate from the £2 billion, or the major part of it.  It sounds a lot of money, but how far will it go?  Well lets have some facts and figures:

- dual carriageway cost between £20 million/mile to £25 million/mile to build on average - so £2 billion would buy 80-100 milesof dual carriageway - much more than is needed for the A303.   £0.7 billion gets you 28-35 miles - probably about right.
- tunnels cost a darned site more to build than dual carriageway, though I'm not sure £1.3 billion is necessarily realistic.  
-to put things in perspective, the A3 Hindhead tunnel at 1.9km long cot the bulk of the £371 million spent on the whole 4km project.  However, the "Big Dig" project in Boston (US) cost in excess of £12.5 billion for a tunnel twice the length of the one proposed for Stonehenge.

So, we welcome the news - but with a healthy scepticism.  After all, we'vee been here before.  Back in the late 1980s, Maggie Thatcher promised A303 widening as a package of road building measures that were claimed to be the biggest since Roman times - they failed to deliver.  More recently, the last Labour government promised to do the job, but killed the project on cost grounds.  So in some ways, here we go again.

However, there are a few differences this time.  Firstly, English Heritage and the National Trust appear to be singing from the same song-sheet and have agreed a plan that minimises impact on the World Heritage Site.  Pragmatism is being shown by many other parties too, recognising that the A303 is a strategic route and it has to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

Pragmatism will also be needed here in Winterbourne Stoke - clearly we will benefit from the removal of traffic from the centre of the village, but there are risks - noise from a dual carriageway situated to the north of the village being an obvious issue. So we will need to fight hard to ensure the environmental issues are addressed to our satisfaction and benefit.  I am sure there will be other issues.

The best news is the fact that they plan to tie the funding into the Infrastructure Bill that is currently going through parliament.  It's all tied into making the Highways Agency a company and ensuring funding certainty in 5-year tranches.  It doesn't mean that a future government couldn't stop things going ahead, but they would have to change legislation as well as changing their minds.

So - a healthy scepticism.  As I write, Rebecca Rooney is reporting a similar healthy scepticism from Larkhill and other villagers

Up at Stonehenge, lots of positive vibes about the plan. STAGs Janice Hassett seemed to be more in demand from interviewers than did Nick Clegg - but then she is a bit of a straight-talking, fire-brand who calls a spade, a spade.

It was a good opportunity to buttonhole people like the regional head of the Highways Agency to ask about what happens in the meantime about the A303 nightmare.  Specifically, we raised the issue of the dangers of Longbarrow Roundabout - as did other STAG members.  We'll see if this has any effect.

So - lets see what happens when all the fuss about today's news dies down and the economic realities hit home. 

The Danger Of Longbarrow Roundabout Suddenly Gets Very Personal

We at the Stonehenge Traffic Action Group (STAG) have been warning for some time about the dangers of the traffic flows around the Longbarrow Roundabout at the junction between the A303 and the A360, just to the west of Stonehenge.  We've raised these dangers with the Highways Agency and despite several re-designs, the roundabout is still not fit for purpose and it is impossible to negotiate it sensibly, even at low speed.

A week ago I joined the roundabout travelling westbound on the A303. A fast-moving police 4x4 joined from the northbound A360, turning west onto the A303.  For some reason, he drifted way over to the left - too far left to use the right hand of the two A303 exit lanes, then discovered that he was undertaking a car that was in the correct exit lane and almost rear-ending the car ahead of him.  If Wiltshire's Finest can't handle Longbarrow Roundabout...???????

Yesterday evening, those dangers got very personal and very real. My wife was involved in a nasty little accident when a car travelling at high-speed westbound on the A303, left that road and collided with two stationary cars waiting to join the A303 from the northbound A360

This is how it unfolded.  My wife was travelling north on the A360 and had stopped in the left-hand lane at Longbarrow Roundabout, handbrake on and well behind the white dotted line, waiting for a gap in the traffic so she could pull out, turn left and head down the A303 to Winterbourne Stoke and home.

A silver Skoda estate was also waiting to pull out onto the roundabout in the lane to her right; presumably to either turn right towards Andover or to head up towards Airman's Cross.  Again, as with my wife, he was well behind the white line.

It was at this point that a young chap in a 2012-registered VW Golf careened on to Longbarrow Roundabout from the A303, travelling westwards from Andover and seemingly intent on carrying on along the A303 westwards.  Whether through poor roundabout design, excessive speed, piss-poor driving or a combination of all three, the westbound driver lost control of his car, which left the A303 and struck the central reservation of the A360.  It bounced over the central reservation and hit the Skoda in the drivers door.

The impact was so great that the Skoda spun round through 90 degrees and its nose struck the Yaris, being driven by my wife, just behind the drivers door.  A few inches further forward and it could have been so much worse.  The cause of the accident bounced back into the centre of the three westbound lanes, causing chaos on the westbound carriageway at the height of the evening rush hour.

My wife did the obvious thing and called Wiltshire Police whilst still trapped in the car - as was the Skoda driver.  Let me be charitable, whoever took the call was a complete waste of space.  When my wife said she wasn't obviously injured, the person to whom she was speaking said the police weren't interested and didn't need to be informed.  That might strictly be the case, but anyone who suggests that emergency services aren't needed to deal with a multi-vehicle smash, on a major trunk road,  blocking a roundabout at an accident blackspot, after dusk, is seriously in need of a trip to the job centre to find an occupation more befitting someone of their limited mental capacity.

COMMENT: It seems that it is Wiltshire Police Policy to not get involved in "non-injury" accidents.  I have to say that relying on crash victims, who may be in shock, who may have underlying medical complaints like heart conditions, or who may feel themselves to be in reasonable condition but to have life threatening injuries, to decide if they, or other accident victims have been injured is crass in the extreme.

My wife and the Skoda driver managed to get out of their vehicles on the passengers side.  Battered, a bit bruised perhaps and, in my wife's case, with a nasty friction burn from the seat-belt across her throat, but thankfully no major injuries.

Eventually, wiser council prevailed and all three emergency services attended the scene.  My wife was checked over by a passing hospital consultant,  a paramedic and an ambulance was also called up.  The Fire Brigade were also needed to check for fuel spills, but also to check the cars to see if the air-bags were in danger of functioning spontaneously - odd things sometimes happen to them in side impacts.  They told my wife her car was unsafe to drive.  Finally Wiltshire Police turned up and established the chain of events; if not the absolute cause.  Thanks though to the policeman who brought my wife home - it made up for the nonsense in the control room!

Here is the policeman looking at the skid marks on the road and central reservation, his torch in the lower one showing just how far the westbound driver had intruded onto the northbound A360.

The Skoda driver had a remarkable escape.  The door hasn't been removed, it has been shoved straight into the drivers seat space.  He clearly leads a charmed life!

It was a bit too dark to see the side of the Yaris last night, but this morning when we went to pick up the last of our bits and pieces from the car at the recovery yard near Warminster:

Not a massive dent in the greater scheme of things, but the side is intruding into the rear passenger compartment and with no side air bags....


...at least it didn't get rammed through the drivers door.  It's not clear whether this is repairable or not.  The consensus last night was that it was likely to be a total loss given the age of the car, location of the damage, etc.  But it would be nice if it was repairable - we really don't want to have to buy another car this month!  Still, at the end of the day it is only metal.

But, I end with a question.  How many more completely avoidable accidents must there be before the Highways Agency get of their idle backsides and get this junction sorted out?  Even if the go-ahead is given to dual the A303 past Stonehenge tomorrow, we are going to have to deal with this mess at Longbarrow Roundabout for a further 6 -10 years.

As a STAG member observed last night: "A campaigning journalist could have a field day with what's gone on here. "  Not only what went on yesterday evening, but what goes on nearly every day of the week at Longbarrow Roundabout.  I really don't want to be writing about a fatality there in a day, a week, a month or a year's time with bugger-all having been done.

Goodwill Hunting - A Little More News of the A303 Feasibility Study

As we said a couple of posts ago, there seems to have been very little activity over the summer regarding the A303/A30/A358 corridor feasibility study, which, given the Parliamentary recess, summer holidays and, for once, a half-way reasonable summer, isn’t all that surprising.  That isn’t to say nothing has been going on.  It seems the study is a bit like a swan on water – not much going on above the surface, but some furious (?) paddling going on below.

Robert Goodwill MP

We are a bit disappointed though.  Back at the start of the year, we (STAG) wrote to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, Robert Goodwill MP, expressing our interest, as a local pressure group in the Stonehenge area, in getting involved in all stages of the study.  Back in January, Goodwill’s Assistant Private Secretary came back with the following response:

A Minion, but maybe not the correct DfT Minion?

“…We are also conducting national events to gather views from environmental organisations and other motoring and business groups.

We understand your interest in the study and rest assured, we plan to engage more widely with local groups in the next few weeks. I will ensure that you are kept informed”.

An apparent show of goodwill by Goodwill and his trusty minion.   Unfortunately, these were hollow words and there has been no engagement or even contact as promised.

We do get a few snippets from the meetings that are going ahead though.  The latest was held in Taunton just over a week ago. John Glen MP (Con – Salisbury) was the only MP there at the start of the meeting.  Wiltshire Council were represented by Cllr Fleur De Rhe-Philippe and Mr Parvis Khansari.  David Heath MP (Lib-Dem - Somerton and Frome) represented Somerset interests.

John Glen MP

John Glen pressed home the well-considered view that they realised that any solution without a bypass for Winterbourne Stoke, and a deliverable solution at Stonehenge, was not going to make the A303 a reliable strategic route to SW.

David Heath MP

 David Heath seems to have suggested that the DfT should press ahead with improving other bits of the corridor, even if a solution at Stonehenge is too expensive.  To us that smacks of selfish-self-interest and is profoundly illogical; spending lots of public money to improve roads that the majority of users at peak periods will still have to queue to join and to leave.  A case of blinkered vision!  Let’s hope he is taken to task by Salisbury Lib-Dems when he visits the city this week.

All in all, it seems that the officials at DfT don’t want too much detailed information out in the public domain until they have got all the costings sorted out.  It is clear that they are considering more than one potential solution and options for solutions that both involve and don’t involve tunnels of varying lengths, along various routes.   Superficially, at least, it seems they have kept open minds and haven’t yet been forced to accept historic solutions.

In typical government fashion, when some detail does emerge, we might expect to see costings for several different options with a “Do Nothing” option (there are significant costs attached to doing nothing in terms of lost tourist and business) and a “preferred” option or two.  Time will tell.

The good news is that English Heritage and the National Trust seem to be being a little more open-minded than they have been in the past.  On the down-side, the Stonehenge Alliance seem to be less willing to compromise.   Sadly, that is what it will need to come down to, negotiation and compromise by all parties.  

John Hayes MP

 In a further development on Monday this week, John Glen MP took the opportunity to press his case for the A303 improvement with the new roads minister the Rt Hon John Hayes MP (Con - South Holland and The Deepings).  Mr Glen particularly stressed the need to produce a solution for the whole of the A303 corridor and that to improve parts of the A303 without solving the Stonehenge conundrum would be a failure .

Pedestrian Critical After Being Hit By Car Near Stonehenge

 We've been fairly quiet over the summer, monitoring the now near daily chaos on the A303.  We now return, but in the saddest way possible, to report a serious road traffic accident.

 We don't yet know all the circumstances, but at around 8:45pm of Friday evening, a 37 year old man from the Gwent area of Wales was struck by a west-bound Mercedes 300 driven by a 28 year old London man on the stretch of the A303 between Stonehenge and here in Winterbourne Stoke.  The road was closed until after midnight.

The pedestrian is reported this lunchtime as being in critical condition with serious head injuries.

Anyone who saw the accident is asked to call Wiltshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

UPDATE:

Sadly, the individual concerned, Patrick Sturtivant, did not survive.  Our thoughts and condolences go out to his family.

The more we hear about this incident, the more predictable it all was.  In fact, all the recent changes to the road system around Stonehenge, and access to the proximity of the stones, made it all but inevitable.

In the past, westbound traffic, wanting to spend a few minutes getting a "trophy" shot of Stonehenge, possibly the most photographed man-made object in the world, used to pull off onto the A344, a route where the majority of the traffic used the road regularly and where the drivers where used to tourists spilling into the road, thumbs up bums, brains in neutral, thoughts fixed only on taking a happy snap.  As a consequence, and quite unwittingly,  road safety was policed by local drivers.  Of course, the closure of the A344 put paid to that.

The second factor that might have contributed to this accident, again fairly predictably, was the "no right turn" signage on the A303 - attempting to prevent traffic turning on to Byway 12.  This was done on the spurious pretext of road safety.  Why spurious?  Well, unlike many of the small turnings off the A303 to the west of Amesbury, the entrance to Byway 12 is visible from a good half mile in either direction.  We suspect the real reason behind the signage is twofold.  First, a legitimate attempt to stop the traffic on the A303 slowing and causing congestion and second, a sop to English Heritage's long-held desire to close Byway 12, completely, to force all visitors to enter the World Heritage Site at Airman's Cross.  Of course, trying to improve traffic flow by banning right turns off the A303 was completely counter productive.  The travelling public did the blindingly obvious - slow, or even stop on the A303 to take that all important photo.

On this occasion, it seems that Mr Sturtivant, travelling west at dusk last Friday, pulled off the A303 at Byway 11, to the east of Byway 12.  Not much local traffic here, just long distance travellers, frustrated by earlier delays, simply wanting to get to the West Country for the weekend.   No doubt there was a glimpse to the right for a quick look at the stones by the Mercedes driver and then he was at Byway 12...

Four Thousand Holes in Blackburn Lancashire, Four Hundred Cameras Around Shrewton, Wiltshire

I do have to apologise to the memory of the late and great John Lennon for abusing the lyrics of "A Day in the Life" but I simply couldn't resist drawing the analogy.

Yesterday, the Salisbury Journal published a very interesting article on the A303 entitled simply: "A303 traffic survey to be carried out"

Basically, the story explains that Atkins, the traffic management consultancy will be placing number plate recognition cameras along the A303 and on surrounding roads as part of a scheme to track vehicle movements on the traffic-choked highway.The Journal article claims that there will be hundreds of these cameras on the surrounding roads, but we suspect that this might be something of an exaggeration and that perhaps 10-20 NPR cameras might be closer to the mark.

Winterbourne Stoke resident, Chairman of the parish council and Wiltshire councillor Ian West observed: "Residents of Shrewton believe the speed and volume of traffic in Shrewton has been made worse by the closure of the A344.

One of the main concerns expressed by local residents is the speed and volume of traffic, it is quoted as one of the main safety factors which people see as a barrier to travelling around their communities on foot or by bicycle or to letting children travel independently. This has very much affected the quality of life in Shrewton.

We very much look forward to the results of the Atkins survey because the increase in traffic is becoming unbearable in Shrewton and the surrounding villages both sides of the A303.” 

Of course, it isn't just Shrewton or indeed the residents here in Winterbourne Stoke who are suffering as a result of the A344 closure.  We (WiSBAng) and the Stonhenge Traffic Action Group (STAG), regularly hear of problems being caused as far afield as Berwick St James, Larkhill, Durrington, Bulford and Amesbury.

Although we wholeheartedly welcome this new initiative and data-gathering exercise, we feel duty-bound to point out something that some might think verges on negligence on the part of Wiltshire Council.  Over the last two decades and more, every bit of traffic modelling undertaken on the A303 corridor, some of it commissioned by Wiltshire Council, predicted that there would be traffic chaos in the surrounding villages if the A344 were to be closed BEFORE the A303 was upgraded.  For years, Wiltshire Council resisted the closure of the A344 on those grounds, then in 2010/2011 they did an about face and sided with English Heritage in pushing for the closure.

Surprise, surprise.  The A344 was closed and all the traffic models were proved correct. 

Now any competent authority would have undertaken a survey such as that being carried out by Atkins between Monday, August 4th and Sunday, August 10th prior to closing the A344, then do the same again after the closure to ensure the changes had had no adverse effects and to be able to quantify the changes with hard data.  That would have been far too sensible and of course it might have run the risk of exposing, in irrefutable terms, that a mistake had been made in closing the A344 prematurely.  That would never do, would it?

As it is, when Atkins report their findings we will know how bad the situation on all these local roads is, but in the absence of knowing what they were like in quantitative terms before the A344 closure, it is impossible to say how much worse they have become.  We can make some estimates based on earlier surveys, but on fewer roads, using somewhat different methodologies; that's far from ideal.

Was That the TDF Peloton Arriving in Winterbourne Stoke?

Since the summer solstice there has been precious little to report on the A303.  Stories of any substance have been hard to find and we had resorted to searching the internet for anything interesting.  We wondered just how many stories on the A303 had been initiated by Wiltshire Council since the start of the year, sitting in all their pontificatorial splendour in Trowbridge?  Given that the A303 is the major east-west trunk road in the south of the county, given its importance to the local economy and especially given the fact HMG are currently looking at the feasibility of improving the A303 through the county, you might expect some fairly regular stories to emerge.  Stories saying just how important this work was and how the county council was 100% behind it.  You might expect such stories but you would be gravely disappointed, there's not been a single one, nada, nothing, bugger-all.  Either Wiltshire Council, as some claim, are overly focussed on the north of the county, or they are determined to kowtow to central government when it comes to the A303.  There was a time when Wiltshire Council and Wiltshire councillors had a bit of backbone.  For whatever reason, they seem to be becoming invertebrates.

On Monday evening, the Winterbourne Stoke Parish Council held its regular meeting.  Lots of things on the agenda and several of them related to the A303 and surrounding roads.  As ever, the meeting was good humoured and purposeful and at the end of it, all the Parish Councillors were going wander down through the village to look at the playpark.

As we came to cross the A303, back into the village we saw a sight that made our blood run cold.  There was a convoy of around 30 to 40 cyclists riding down the A303 from the direction of Longbarrow Roundabout and Stonehenge, all in high-visibility jackets and most riding line astern. It looked like the Tour de France peloton had taken a wrong turn and finished up in Wiltshire. Way too many yellow jerseys to work out which one was Vincenzo Nibali winning yet another mountain stage!  As they got closer, there was a collective holding of breath as several vans passed them.  Regular users of the A303 are only to well aware that the road is barely wide enough to allow vehicles to pass in opposite directions.  It's way too narrow to allow overtaking.  Thankfully, at 9:15pm on a Monday evening, traffic is light and the riders survived long-enough for some of them to pull off the road at the end of Church Street.

We crossed the road to see if we could help them as it was clear that they were lost.  We couldn't work out their nationality, Japanese perhaps, but one of their number explained they were heading for the Stonehenge Campsite, about a mile away.  Clearly, the A303 had not quite been the road they had been expecting and a few of them looked a wee bit shaken.  We never did find out where they had cycled from.

It does raise another point about the A303 in this part of the West Country; it is a tourist area and people want to mover around the landscape on foot, on bikes and on horseback, as well as in and on motorised vehicles.  We hope that the government have sufficient foresight to construct a byway for this type of user.  One that runs alongside a dualled A303, but separated from it by barriers.  It should run from Amesbury (and ideally well east of Amesbury in time) all the way to Devon and Cornwall.  Such a facility would be welcomed by the many tourists, local, national and international, who flock to this area and put so much into the local economy.

It's interesting that such foresight was missing from the Wiltshire Council Local Transport Plan Cycling Strategy 2011-2026.

Another example of a missed opportunity by Wiltshire Council, where everyone matters, but where everything moves with slug-like velocity.

STOP PRESS: Abnormal Loads On The A303

Wiltshire Police are warning motorists to be aware of several abnormal loads that will be passing through the county this week, eastbound along a section of the A303.  Thank goodness they didn't try this on Monday with the chaos caused by a crash at Stonehenge and the crowds heading home after the Glastonbury Festival.

At approximately 11.00am on Wednesday 2nd July, three specialist load transporters carrying dump trucks will be escorted by Wiltshire Police from Whatley Quarry, Frome to the Parkhouse roundabout off the A303. The transporter will then continue its planned route (outside of the Wiltshire border) on the A303 and A34 before later joining the M4 where it will re-enter the county.  We think it is probably these little beauties making a return journey:

The same transporters carrying similar loads will then make an identical trip 24 hours later on Thursday 3rd July, also starting at approximately 11.00am.  You do have to question the common sense of whoever agreed to this happening on a Thursday, at a time when eastbound traffic is likely to be building up in the new A303 special - the advanced Friday rush hour.

The transporters and their loads will measure 5.75 metres (18ft 10ins) wide, 4.98m (16ft 4ins) high with an overall length of 23m (76ft) and gross weight of 117 tonnes.

Routes that are likely to be affected by the transportation are the eastbound stretches of the A361, A36, A350 and A303. The transporter will also be travelling on the A34 and M4 later in the afternoon.

Due to the size of the transporters, they will be slow moving and will have the potential to create congestion. Wherever possible, disruption will be kept to a minimum but hauliers and motorists are asked to please be patient if they come across this load. Anyone travelling over this period should allow sufficient additional time.

Regular updates and travel information in respect of the abnormal loads will be passed from our control room at Devizes when appropriate to help motorists plan their journey.

Police escorting resources are being provided by volunteer police officers on rest days, paid for by the haulier at no cost to the public.

Now how much easier would all this be if the A303 were dualled along its entire length?  Watch out for problems in Winterbourne Stoke if either of these convoys meet an HGV travelling westwards.