A COURT will determine whether the A303 Stonehenge tunnel scheme is to be scrapped next week.

Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site (SSWHS) will be at the Court of Appeal from July 15-17 to try and get the Development Consent Order (DCO) for the A303 Stonehenge road scheme overturned.

The following week UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee is meeting in India to decide on the recommendation to place Stonehenge on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

If this the committee recommend it is placed on this list, Stonehenge would be one step away from losing its World Heritage status altogether.

SSWHS is urging Labour to scrap the scheme and to re-establish the UK’s international standing.

An artist's impression of the Stonehenge tunnel.An artist's impression of the Stonehenge tunnel.  

John Adams, chair of the Stonehenge Alliance and one of the three directors of SSWHS, said: “Next week the Court of Appeal will hear why we believe that the decision to grant the DCO and the reasons for dismissing our challenge, were wrong.

"Labour could save us all a lot of time and money by scrapping the scheme now. This would spare our international blushes and rebuild this country’s reputation for looking after its heritage.”

Tom Holland, president of the Stonehenge Alliance, said: “Any scheme that manages to be at once ineffective, hugely damaging and grotesquely expensive is ripe for cancellation.

"The new government should seize the opportunity to consign the Stonehenge Tunnel to the dustbin where it belongs.”