The issue of the Stonehenge tunnel reared its head again last week with the go-ahead being given by the Secretary of State for Transport.

As the only Wiltshire councillor to speak out against the tunnel back in 2017, shortly after I was first elected, I would say that the reasons not to go ahead with this multi-billion-pound white elephant project have only increased.

My original objections were that it was a natural right to see the stones from the road, and one that goes back many millennia, whether one was driving or riding in a car, an HGV, a bus, or a horse and cart.

But there are of course many other reasons not to go ahead with the tunnel: the cost to the environment, including where the spoil is to be dumped, the carbon budget of the whole scheme, the difficulty that emergency services will have reaching victims in the case of heaven forbid an accident or a terrorist incident inside the tunnel.

As well as the massive financial cost when we know the country is bankrupt, and we can’t pay the doctors and nurses properly, provide social care for the elderly, or repair our roads!

The argument that the tunnel will somehow protect the stones is also spurious, it risks losing the site’s UNESCO World Heritage status, and for what?

So that English Heritage can charge even more outrageous amounts for those that want to visit the place.

My advice is if you want to visit a peaceful stone circle, then go to Avebury instead.

We all know about the traffic problem past Stonehenge, I have spent time in queues there myself, as will many reading this, but how much simpler and cheaper to simply dual the road?

Then there would be the bonus of plenty of funds left over to deal with the problems on the rest of the A303.

Dr Brian Mathew

Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet member for the environment

& Wiltshire Councillor for Box & Colerne

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