Stonehenge: A Few Scary Moments On The A303 At Stonehenge Bottom

Earlier today, I went for a bike ride to clear my head and for the last part, I rode north-eastwards along Byway 12, to the A303.  Crossing the A303 is never easy and you need to have your wits about you.  Putting it bluntly, when you cross the A303 here, you have to remember that the great travelling public aren't really thinking that they might encounter people by the roadside.  Why on earth would there be people close to one of the wonders of the World; I ask you?

As a consequence of this, anyone attempting to cross the A303 at Byway 12, Byway 11 or Stonehenge Bottom has to regard themselves as a slice of ham about to be sandwiched between two pieces of steel-reinforced "bread" with a closing speed in excess of 120 mph.  Get it wrong and it is going to hurt - briefly, bloodily and almost certainly, finally.

At Byway 12, you have to wait until you can't see vehicles in either direction to have enough time to stroll, not run, across the A303.  Running isn't advised, as if you were to fall, you simply wouldn't have time to pick yourself up before the Grim Sandwich Maker appeared.  On quiet days, you might have to wait a couple of minutes for a safe gap - there aren't many quiet days any more!  On a bad day, you might have to wait 10-15 minutes or even longer to cross in reasonable safety, or simply give it up as a bad job and back track. Too many lose patience and take silly risks...

Today wasn't too bad and I was safely across in under a minute.  I rode up to the A344 then onto the temporary permissive path between Byway 12 and Stonehenge Bottom.  As I crested the ridge down to Stonehenge Bottom I was confronted by a veritable gaggle of cyclists heading down towards the A303.

They were a nice friendly bunch and I explained that I was part of STAG and what we were about and please could I take photos of them if they were trying to cross.  They were happy for me to do so, so here is a short vignette of what happened next.

The thought of them all trying to cross made my blood run a bit cold as the traffic here is gravity-assisted in both directions and the westbound traffic is still trying to settle scores with other drivers from the 2 lanes into 1 section of the A303, a few hundred meters to the east.

A few cyclists at the front of the group spotted a small gap and either ran or rode across.

Most of them didn't get the opportunity and there was  steady stream of fast-moving traffic in both directions on what is, at this point a Clearway, not that anyone gives a tuppeny-damn about the Highway Code these days!

They waited, and waited, and waited.

When a westbound gap appeared they moved forward, then back again as it disappeared.

One of them made it to the central strip and an eastbound driver in a grey car slowed and stopped.  Remember, it is a Clearway - no stopping.

The cyclists, not quite sure what to do now, all started to move off the verge towards the centre of the A303,  but did so very hesitantly.  The westbound traffic was still thundering past them with mere inches to spare.  It couldn't have been a very pleasant experience.

White van man from Black Hole Storage Removals clearly didn't give a damn and went roaring through and this carried on for a while until another grey car stopped on the westbound carriageway.

and finally, the whole group got across safely.

It could so easily have been very different.  But why are things so dangerous?

Well, the people who control the World Heritage Site have a policy of making Stonehenge a more bike (and horse and pedestrian) friendly place.  This seemed to be borne-out in the plans for the new visitor's centre submitted by English Heritage.  However, despite their intentions and despite planning conditions that mandated a whole raft of measures that would have improved things for cyclists, English Heritage have singularly failed to deliver.

One of the few things that was largely outside the control of English Heritage was an improved crossing at Stonehenge Bottom.  On the one hand,  increased usage of the crossing point was anticipated by all parties after the closure of the A344, hence the planning requiremnt.  However, a spoke was put in the works by the Highways Agency who produced a report - in the way Government Agencies do when they don't want to take action.  The conclusion of this report reads as follows:

"It is the designer’s view that the current usage of this crossing by pedestrians or by cyclists, on either the A303 or the A344 routes, does not justify the increased risk to motorised users on the A303 of providing refuge islands for this crossing. However it is felt that the opportunity to relocate the crossing to the best location position for NMU visibility and to reduce the crossing width is justified and should be taken.

In taking this view, the designer is taking note of RSA team preference, based on pedestrian rather than cycle use of the crossing, of the do minimum crossing type. The designer is also influenced by the fact that this is far from being the only single carriageway rural at grade crossing of the A303 with no specific NMU facilities, including equestrian crossings. 

The proximity of this crossing to the Stonehenge World Heritage site does not currently attract to it significant NMU usage. It is therefore felt that neither the existing usage of the crossing or the last five year’s accident records warrant a different approach here to that taken at other similar crossing locations where the balance of risks between NMU and Motorised Users, and hence the actual overall risk, dictates the level of provision made. 

It is therefore recommended that the measures in Option 4 proposals, with the refuge islands removed but all the other measures retained is adopted. 

A future scheme for reviewing the crossing arrangements needs to be submitted and approved. The scheme shall have regard to Design Manual for Roads and Bridges HD 19/03 Stage 4 Safety Audit 12 and 36 month post scheme recommendations for any remedial action. 

It is felt that the extensive investigation already under taken into the examination of the safety of and the changes to the crossing here proposed satisfies the requirements of the planning condition."

Just for the record, NMUs are non-motorised units - pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.  Cutting out all the crap, what they are actually saying is that the body-count at Stonehenge Bottom is too low to warrant making anything more than superficial changes. However, they go on to suggest that a safety audit at 12 and 36 months might change things if the body count increases.

I don't suppose the contribution by Wiltshire Council helped much either:

"...that in relation to cycle usage their preferred route between the A344 to the north and Amesbury for cyclists was via the countess roundabout underpass crossing of the A303 and than via Lark Hill."  (all the typos and grammatical errors are courtesy of the Highways Agency!)

As usual with Wiltshire Council when it comes to anything in the south of the county - thumbs up bums and brains in neutral all the way.  No-one in their right minds, who knew about the local area, would ever choose to get from the centre of Amesbury to Stonehenge by heading north, through the scrofulous Countess Roundabout underpass (on foot - as cycling is forbidden on this bit of the cycle route), up Countess Road, being harassed by rat-running motorists, then head west to Larkhill along the rat-run of choice for coaches and HGVs, before eventually getting to the northern end of Byway 12.

Most sensible folk will simply head out to West Amesbury, up to the A303 and then to Stonehenge Bottom and the A344 - no need to ride with high speed traffic at all - just dice with death crossing the A303.  That's what they've always done, that's what they were doing today and that's what they will do until the A303 issue is resolved once and for all. 

Of course,  there was a fall-back plan to monitor the situation.  Here it is.  Read it carefully and spot the flaw:

STONEHENGE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT Planning Application Reference S/2009/1527 

Scheme required under planning condition 27 for reviewing pedestrian and cycle route access arrangements along the whole of the A344, and crossing arrangements at the A303 (Stonehenge Bottom)

Following approval of the details of the pedestrian and cycle route access arrangements along the whole of the A344 and crossing arrangements at the A303 (Stonehenge Bottom), English Heritage will co-operate with the Local Highways Authority, Highways Agency and the Local Planning Authority in reviewing the arrangements. In particular, should a formal Stage 4 Safety Audit be carried out, and any recommendations for remedial action be made in the 12 and 36 month Stage 4 Reports submitted to English Heritage and the other organisations, then any required remedial works, and arrangements for their implementation and funding, will be considered and agreed between English Heritage, the Local Highways Authority, the Local Planning Authority and the Highways Agency, as appropriate. 

In addition, English Heritage will carry out the following:

• -  Incorporate questions about the pedestrian and cycle access into the annual visitor survey conducted by the travel and tourism department of market research company TNS. This will comprise face to face interviews with 180 individuals during the months of July, August and September. Likely questions include: whether people have accessed the site on foot or on bicycle, and, if so, where they have travelled from, how satisfactory they have found the route and where they are travelling onto. 
  
  
• -  As part of the ongoing operational management of the site English Heritage staff will, as a matter of course, record, report to the relevant authorities and, if appropriate, take any necessary action in respect of any incidents or accidents along the route of the A344 between Airman's Corner and Stonehenge Bottom. 
  
  English Heritage 26th April 2012
  

 

Did you spot it?  Yes, that's right.  Most pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders arriving at Stonehenge don't pitch up at the visitor's centre, as there is (still) no provision for them.  They may arrive from east or west, north or south, but we suspect that few, if any, will be invited to take part in the annual visitor survey, conducted for English Heritage by TNS.  

During my many visits to the WHS this July August and September I've never seen anyone with a clipboard interviewing pedestrians, cyclists and the two riders I have seen, nor have I ever been approached.  Now that's interesting, if true because this safety audit is meant to be looking at the safety of crossing the A303 by any and all users, not just English Heritage's paying customers.

As I say, we don't know for certain that this is the case, but I feel an FOIA request ,or two, coming on! 

English Heritage Mess Up on the A344 - Yet Again

Last month we heard from Wiltshire Council, definitively they claim, that the A344 is still the A344 and a highway.  As "A" roads have a legal definition in the UK and that involves joining population centres, carrying motorised traffic, etc, it is patently absurd to continue to list the A344 as an "A" road.  Consequently, this is being taken up with the Secretary of State for resolution.

Meanwhile, on the A344, English Heritage continue to mess up.  As a planning condition for the new visitor's centre, they were obliged to install Kent Carriage Gaps to allow all non-motorised traffic, not banned by the permanent Traffic Regulation Order, to use the A344, unhindered, 24/7.  Like many of the planning conditions imposed on English heritage (around 23 of them) many were supposed to be put in place before the visitor's centre was opened to the public,; the management plan seems to suggest sometinme between October and December 2013.  Yet again, this was a major fail by English Heritage.  Wiltshire Council Planning Department seem to have done little to police these consents, which makes you wonder what they spend their time doing!

Now for those of you who don't know, a Kent Carriage Gap is one of the ways of enforcing a TRO of the sort imposed on the A344.  This is how they should be designed:

Two sizes of post to allow carriages of different sizes to pass along the carriageway.  The separation of the posts and their height is also defined.

The point of these gaps is to allow unhindered access along the carriageway - the operative word here being along.  This is how they should be constructed.

Have English Heritage achieved this?  No, of course not.  Almost 9 months late, this is all they have been able to manage.

Between the new roundabout at Airman's Cross and the entrance to the visitor's centre carpark you have this attempt, photographed by Wiltshire Councillor and Chairman of Winterbourne Stoke Parish Council Ian West and friends,  it certainly doesn't seem fit for purpose, doesn't meet the design of Kent Carriage Gap for which planning consent was given, and wouldn't appear to be able to be used as intended by all the types of carriage it is meant to permit. 

Further along, we come to an even more egregious mess which we photographed last week in the run-up to the presidential visit!

Well, on the plus side, EH have lowered the kerb.  But that is the only positive thing that can be said about it.  The Gap is again to one side of the A344, not across it and there is no clear exit from it back onto the A344.  It's worse than that, bearing in mind that the path running from left to right comes down from the coach park and is the main access for visitors being brought in from that direction.  Now, given these pedestrians are about to cross an open highway, the A344, in very large numbers, you'd think English Heritage would have had the common sense to do a number of things.  First, leading pedestrians onto and across a highway, without warning them they are crossing one is a fairly stupid thing to do; particularly given that many of them are foreign visitors. 

Second, not warning those using the highway that there may be pedestrians about is also pretty lame, so you'd think there might be proper signage on the path and the road, "Look both ways" signs on the footpath, etc, etc, but no such luck.  All in all, when we have our first visitor mown down by a horse rider, horse and carriage or even a cyclist, the negligence on English Heritage's part will be clear.

In writing this, we realise we never actually measured the height and separation of the posts that are there, so we might have to pop up and measure them to be sure.

Ian West and friends also looked at the state of the permissive byway at the other end of the old A344, beyond Byway 12 and towards Stonehenge Bottom.  English Heritage, keen to foster the World Heritage Site's policy of encouraging visits by cyclists have signposted the route:

You've got to admire the lengths they have gone to over the last 9 months to do this!  Of course, if you take the trouble to go down that way,  avoiding the inevitable traffic jam at byway 12...

...you can get a really good view of Stonehenge, without having to pay the extortionate entry charge.  Follow this up with a visit to the museums in Amesbury, Salisbury or Devizes and you will see the best of Wiltshire's archaeology - you don't even need a local resident's pass.

All we can say is that it is a good job President Obama didn't arrive by bike and that Raffles family of Amesbury decided to walk up to Stonehenge from the east, rather than go by car, or else the six of them would never have met and English Heritage couldn't have benefited, however undeservedly, from the global human interest story that broke following the president's visit. 

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.

English Heritage: Give Them An Inch And They Take a Mile

You never quite know what is going to arrive in the post.  Usually, it's just bills and the usual advertising rubbish that is of no interest and only serves to kill off a few more trees.  Sometimes though, it can be a real pleasure.  Today was one of those days.

I got a letter from a lovely chap, a long time opponent of the A344 closure and proponent of dualing the A303, who goes by the name of "Vexatious Alan".  The epithet isn't because he really is vexatious - it's a bit of a badge of honour in Freedom of Information Act circles that he has got so far up some august body's nose, probably because he was close to exposing some sort of misdoing, they have decreed his FOIA requests are "vexatious" and so they don't need to answer them!

 Receiving the letter was a real pleasure as I so rarely get them - letters written by real living and breathing human beings that is.  I normally operate in cyberspace, grabbing information here there and everywhere - cutting and pasting it into new documents and blasting them back out into the ether.  Having to deal with a typewritten letter was something of a novelty...

...anyway, let's cut to the chase and look at the information "Vexatious Alan" provided.  Since November 2010 he has been pursuing English Heritage in relation to pedestrian and cycle access along the route of what has now become the former A344.  Back on the 24th November 2010, Loraine Knowles of English Heritage wrote to "Vexatious Alan" to explain the rationale behind the Stopping Up Order for the section of the A344 from Stonehenge Bottom on the A303 and the intersection of the A344 with Wiltshire Byway 12.   Loraine Knowles wrote the following on behalf of English Heritage:

"...there was a firm consensus that a stopping up order was more appropriate... 
...in view of the clear intention to return the surface to grass. However, the need to provide access for non-motorised traffic had been recognised at that time, and for this reason it had been proposed that a permissive route be provided for pedestrians and cyclists between Stonehenge Bottom and Byway 12."

"We would note that the commitment to provide a permissive route between Stonehenge Bottom and Byway 12 is a requirement of the Section 106 legal agreement signed by the National Trust, DCMS, EH and Wiltshire Council."

Now that is both interesting and puzzling.  I'm not a legal eagle but common sense dictates that if the right to drive a motorised vehicle along a stretch of road are removed through the implementation of a stopping up order and a TRO, as were used in the case of the A344, then the right to move along that route on foot, on a bike or on a horse still exist as they weren't specifically removed.  So, in one sense, I don't see why a permissive byway was needed as a de-facto substantive byway already existed along the route and continues to exist.  But, until someone comes along and can provide the legal view on all this, let's play the English Heritage game for the moment - they have a legal obligation to provide a permissive route between Stonehenge Bottom and Byway 12.

Wiltshire Council in the planning consent for the recently opened visitor's centre imposed a series of conditions that English Heritage were obliged to sign-up to.  According to the information provided to me by Vexatious Alan, the last of these, Condition 27 reads as follows:

"No development shall commence until

         (i)  details of the pedestrian and cycle route along the whole of the A344, including the crossing
               arrangements at the A303 (Stonehenge Bottom) and

        (ii)  a scheme for reviewing such access and crossing arrangements

have been submitted and approved (in consultation with the Highways Agency) in writing by the local planning authority".

"The development shall not be occupied until the agreed works have been completed".

"The scheme for reviewing the access and crossing arrangements...

...shall detail how recommended remedial action will be funded and implemented, including arrangements to provide for alternative crossing points on the A303 and associated access links."


Wiltshire Council recently provided "Vexatious Alan" with a map of what the A303 junction and paths at Stonehenge Bottom should have looked like, before the new visitor's centre was allowed to open.  You WILL need to click on this to see it.

"Vexatious Alan" has helpfully highlighted the length of new path that English Heritage were supposed to install and a pre-existing path that English Heritage seem to have removed.

Anyone who has tried to cross the A303, use the new gate and ride a bike up to Byway 12 knows that English Heritage have not done what they were supposed to do.

UPDATE:  Having read the original version of this post, an up-to-the-minute STAG member sent me a photo, taken only yesterday, looking back down the stopped up A344.  Note the high quality footpath and cycle path - NOT!  Interesting to see that the byway - permissive or substantive - with its steel fencing across it, gives the impression of not being a byway at all!  Anyone would think that English Heritage were trying to convince people it didn't exist and deter them from trying. 

I think that both English Heritage and Wiltshire Council Planning Department have a few questions that they need to answer pretty sharpish and as a matter of public interest.  This isn't only important in the context of the A344, but also of considerable importance when it comes to what might happen with the A303 after the planned feasibility study reports.

It seems, if the information above is to be believed and I have no reason to doubt it, that English Heritage cannot be trusted to comply with legal agreements it has willingly signed up to and legal conditions to which it is subject by virtue of the planning process.  Furthermore, Wiltshire Council seem to have failed to monitor compliance with the Conditions of the planning consent that THEY imposed.

None of this fills me with a sense that either organisation is to be trusted.  With English Heritage it really does seem to be a case that if you give them an inch, they will take a mile. It actually makes me feel somewhat...

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Why an obscure reference to Chapter 7 of Kenneth Grahame's "Wind in the Willows" or Pink Floyd's debut album from 1967 you might ask?  A good question, and one for which there is a good answer - Well,  an answer at least.

I suppose the Wind in the Willows reference is only fair given the fact that the A303 has been making passable attempts to imitate a river for the past few weeks and you can frequently find examples of Badger, Ratty, Mr Toad and other characters lying immobile and festering by the side of it. 

In this case though, the reference really is to Pink Floyd.  First, they are my favourite band and any excuse I can think of to listen to their music has to be leapt at.  Second. I was reading some Tweets from another STAG member, @tragicyclist - a keen cyclist.  He and his friends had been complaining about the lack of cycle lanes.  Although I ride mountain bikes,  I'd avoided a road back because the prospect of riding on the A303, to get out of the village, is terrifying.   However, for all sorts of reasons, I now have a road bike, and that got me to thinking of Pink Floyd and the Piper at the Gates of Dawn in particular.  The final track on side 2 of the UK version of the album is Bike.

I've got a bike.
You can ride it if you like.
It's got a basket, a bell that rings,
and things to make it look good.
I'd give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.

That's all a very convoluted way of getting to the real point about this post.  If we are going to spend a King's Ransom dualing the A303/A358/A30 corridor, why not be really imaginative?  This is meant to be the Highway to the Sun, after all; especially when it is not being the Highway to Hell.

Why not take the opportunity of creating a purpose built cycleway and footpath at the same time?

It could be shared with pedestrians and, given the wealth of interesting things along the course of the A303, could make a walking or cycling holiday in its own right.   Now I don't mean painting a narrow strip down the side of the A303 and assuming that cars and lorries will stay out of it.

They won't!  In any event - mixing pedestrians and cyclists with traffic travelling at 70-90mph isn't a particularly bright idea. 

I don't even think it would be sensible to set a cycleway/pedestrian lane directly alongside the carriageway - too clos, too noisy and still way too intimidating.  What I'd like to see is something like the cycleways around the outskirts of Oxford and in many European cities.

A cycleway and footpath physically separated from the road by a grass strip and, ideally, by an Armco barrier to stop accidental incursions by motor vehicles.  We have a once only opportunity with the A303 and any dualing activity that might happen and we should make as much of it as we can.  What do YOU think?