Action demanded on A303 traffic after tunnel scrapped
Action has been demanded by almost every Wiltshire councillor over traffic on the A303 near Stonehenge after the collapse of the government’s tunnel scheme
Action has been demanded by almost every Wiltshire councillor over traffic on the A303 near Stonehenge after the collapse of the government’s tunnel scheme.
At a meeting of the full council on Tuesday, May 19, councillors voted overwhelmingly to call on the secretary of state for transport to give “clear direction” on the next steps for addressing congestion on the arterial route.
A motion, presented by Amesbury West councillor Monica Devendran (Conservative) urged the government to develop a “funded and deliverable alternative solution.”
“The people of Amesbury and the surrounding villages cannot carry on without an alternative solution,” said Cllr Devendran.
“Roads that were never designed to carry heavy traffic have become rat runs, creating unnecessary dangers for local communities.
“How can one of the primary road links to the West Country in the 21st century still be a single carriageway?”
The motion won cross-party support, with Liberal Democrat council leader Ian Thorn accusing the government of “pork barrel politics” and offering to drive to Swindon and talk to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander himself.
Responding to the motion, Martin Smith, cabinet member for highways, said the tunnel cancellation “was done extremely suddenly when the new government came in, which now means we have no solution to the congestion on the A303.”
He said it was “a problem that only National Highways can resolve,” and warned: “the rat running through the villages will continue and there will be an economic hit on the region in the coming years.”
He said the council’s highways department had been “continuing discussions with National Highways and the Department for Transport since the project was cancelled,” but cautioned: “there is no clear alternative solution at the moment.”
Conservative group leader Richard Clewer said: “We cannot sit back and just say it’s too tough a problem.
“I know we don’t all necessarily like the tunnel, but the tunnel became the only game in town. For it to have been scrapped was disgraceful.”
And Reform leader Ed Rimmer said the scrapping of the tunnel scheme was “a microcosm of the problems that we face in this country ”
“We spent 179 million quid of taxpayers’ money, and we’ve got absolutely nowhere.”
Labour leader Cllr Ricky Rogers also backed the proposal, saying the two stretches of dual carriageway either side of the ancient monument needed to be connected in some way.
“When I came into this chamber in 1989, we were talking about the very topic – how do we improve the traffic flow past Stonehenge?”
Councillors voted to support the motion 91 to one.
The Stonehenge tunnel was a proposed dual‑carriageway road tunnel on the A303 in Wiltshire, designed to take traffic out of sight of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site and to ease chronic congestion on the existing surface road.
The scheme involved a two‑mile bored tunnel as part of a wider upgrade of around eight miles of the A303 past Stonehenge.
After decades of on‑off proposals, the Conservative government received development consent in 2020, but faced multiple legal challenges over fears of “permanent, irreversible harm” to the archaeology and landscape, and warnings from UNESCO about the impact on the World Heritage Site.
In July 2024 the incoming Labour government decided not to proceed with construction, cancelling the £1.7–2.5 billion scheme on affordability grounds during a post‑election spending review, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves describing it as a low‑value, unaffordable commitment.
Planning consent for the tunnel was formally revoked in March 2026.