Shadow minister demands A303 action
It's after a fact-finding mission to villages around Stonehenge
A senior politician has demanded action on the A303, after a fact-finding mission to villages around Stonehenge.
Shadow transport secretary, Richard Holden, wrote to his government counterpart, Swindon South MP and Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, asking for action, after the cancellation of the £2 billion Stonehenge Tunnel project.
Mr Holden visited communities around Stonehenge, at the invitation of Dr Monica Devendran, the Wiltshire Councillor for Amesbury West.
Mr Holden said that during his fact-finding trip there was “a clear and consistent concern that the underlying transport problems affecting communities along the A303 corridor have not gone away.”
He wrote: “Residents are particularly concerned that, despite the cancellation of the scheme, there appears to have been little consideration given to mitigating the continuing impact of congestion and the increasing volume of diversion traffic through surrounding villages.”
He said one issue raised repeatedly was “the routine re-routing of traffic, by satellite navigation services, through villages such as Shrewton, Berwick St James and other nearby communities, whenever congestion or incidents occur on the A303.”
He said residents “described the resulting rat-running as causing severe congestion, speeding, noise, pedestrian safety risks and disruption to local businesses.”
“In many cases, these roads are simply not designed to accommodate such volumes of through traffic,” he wrote.
Mr Holden asked for the Department for Transport to talk to Google Maps and other mapping services “to reduce unnecessary routing of strategic traffic through unsuitable villages wherever practicable.”
He said: “It is clear that local communities feel current navigation algorithms are exacerbating an already difficult situation, particularly following the cancellation of the improvement scheme.”
And he expressed concern that “no credible alternative has yet been put forward to address congestion, improve resilience along the A303 corridor, or reduce the impact of diversion traffic on neighbouring villages when issues do occur.”
And he asked for “secure, sensible and low-cost mitigations, such as screening” to “stop people dangerously slowing down, pulling over, hanging out of windows, or standing up through sunroofs, often with children, to take photographs of Stonehenge.”
The A303 Amesbury-to-Berwick Down highway scheme – which included proposals to divert the arterial route through a tunnel past Stonehenge – was cancelled by the incoming Labour Government in July 2024 as part of a review of unfunded or unaffordable transport commitments.
The government later formally ended the project, when Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, revoked its Development Consent Order, saying there had been “exceptional circumstances”, a substantial change in deliverability, and that the scheme no longer aligned with current strategic policy objectives.
At the point the scheme was halted, the estimated cost stood at between £1.4 billion and £1.7 billion, with £179.2 million already spent on planning, design and development by the time the project was abandoned.
In May, a motion presented to Wiltshire Council by Cllr Devendran was passed by 91 votes to one, compelling council leader Ian Thorn to write to Ms Alexander about A303 traffic concerns.
Cllr Thorn said he would “drive to Swindon and talk to her myself,” about the problem.
This week, Cllr Devendran told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I will continue pressing the Government, National Highways and relevant stakeholders to ensure local communities are heard and kept informed as this work progresses.
“I thank Richard Holden for visiting Stonehenge, listening directly to residents, and taking the concerns of local communities to the Secretary of State for Transport.”