Campaigners launch contemporary Stonehenge street authorized problem
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ampaigners have launched a brand new authorized battle towards the Transport Secretary’s determination to approve a controversial street undertaking which features a tunnel close to Stonehenge – having efficiently blocked the scheme two years in the past.
Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site (SSWHS) is difficult Mark Harper’s determination to again the £1.7 billion scheme to overtake eight miles of the A303, together with the two-mile tunnel.
A growth consent order beforehand issued for the National Highways undertaking was quashed by the High Court in July 2021 amid concern in regards to the environmental affect on the Unesco World Heritage Site.
Historian and president of the Stonehenge Alliance Tom Holland mentioned an additional authorized problem was essential to “halt a development that, if allowed to go ahead, will permanently and irreversibly desecrate the Stonehenge landscape”.
Then-transport secretary Grant Shapps gave the inexperienced gentle to the undertaking in November 2020 regardless of recommendation from Planning Inspectorate officers it might trigger “permanent, irreversible harm” to the world.
The Government seems each blind and deaf to issues in regards to the injury it would perpetrate on this historic and much-loved panorama
The Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site alliance efficiently challenged his determination within the High Court.
The Department for Transport accredited the tunnel from Amesbury to Berwick Down in Wiltshire for the second time on July 14.
Campaigners will now try to dam the undertaking once more.
John Adams, one of many three administrators of SSWHS and chair of the Stonehenge Alliance, mentioned: “The Government appears both blind and deaf to concerns about the damage it will perpetrate on this historic and much-loved landscape.
“It has ignored concerns raised by Unesco and seems hell bent on bulldozing this scheme through before it gets thrown out of Government.
“We believe we have no choice but to launch a second legal challenge in the face of such belligerence.”
Rowan Smith, a Leigh Day solicitor who represents the campaigners, mentioned: “Our client is shocked that the Government appears not to have learnt from its mistakes and has repeated the decision to grant development consent for the Stonehenge road scheme.
“Again, the decision appears to have been made on an unlawful basis. Our client will argue that the failure to reopen the public examination a second time round was unfair and also a breach of human rights.
“We hope the court will grant our client permission for a full hearing.”
The Stonehenge web site, along with Avebury, was declared by Unesco to be a World Heritage Site of Outstanding Universal Value in 1986 on account of the dimensions of the megaliths, the sophistication of their concentric plans and the complexes of Neolithic and Bronze Age websites and monuments.
The A303 is a congestion hotspot, with drivers heading to and from the South West throughout peak vacation durations typically caught in lengthy queues on the only carriageway stretch close to the stones.
Highways England says its plan for a two-mile tunnel will take away the sight and sound of visitors passing the positioning and minimize journey instances, however some environmentalists and archaeologists have voiced their opposition to the plan resulting from its potential affect on the world.
The undertaking is classed as nationally important, which implies a growth consent order is required for it to go forward.
In a High Court ruling in July 2021, a choose discovered then-transport secretary Mr Shapps’ determination to approve the undertaking was “unlawful” on two grounds.
Mr Justice Holgate concluded there was a “material error of law” within the decision-making course of as a result of there was no proof of the affect on every particular person asset on the historic web site.
He additionally discovered that Mr Shapps failed to think about different schemes, in accordance with the World Heritage Convention and customary legislation.
The Department for Transport was approached for remark however declined.