Stonehenge on The Culture Show
Deliberately 'ingenuous' presentation, or BBC2 missing the boat?

From the Sacred Sites Project, 16 March 2006
Contact [email protected]
or J. Blain at 07919 556371

The comment below was sent to The Culture Show immediately after the programme segment on Stonehenge on 16th March 2006. Will it get any airtime?

Opposition to the Stonehenge 'tunnel' has not been based only on the cost of construction (escalating though that has been) but on the potentially destructive effects of a tunnel on the archaeology of this World Heritage - and for many, sacred - landscape. Hence the calls by the National Trust and others for a longer tunnel, and also the calls for a different routing of the traffic now carried by the A303. None of the proposed solutions appear to take seriously into account, for instance, the tracts of land to the North, currently MoD property.

Further, many people have their first experience of 'heritage' while going past Stonehenge on the A303... is there not scope for attempting to route the bulk of traffic to the West Country by other means - including enhancements to public transport as well as a re-routing of the 303 - while still maintaining a restricted-speed 303 along its historic route: for this road is also part of the context of Stonehenge.

Regards,
Dr Jenny Blain
http://www.sacredsites.org.uk
Faculty of Development and Society, Sheffield Hallam University