------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this issue:
1. Urgent: Stonehenge needs YOU to stop massively destructive highway!
2. How you can help
---
1. Urgent: Stonehenge needs YOU to stop massively destructive highway!It's mid-June 2003 and the Summer Solstice will soon be here. That's
normally a time for great celebration at Stonehenge. But this year things
will be a little different. The British government has just published the
full details of how it plans to bulldoze a new four-lane highway through
the world-famous heritage site. British environmental groups, under the
banner of the Stonehenge Alliance, have roundly condemned the scheme as
"massively destructive". Save Stonehene! urgently needs your help, once
again, for the next stage of our campaign. Please read on!
Last time we wrote to you, back in December, the British government had
announced it was softening its original plan to bulldoze the road straight
through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The original plan would have
sunk the middle part of the road into a so-called "cut-and-cover" tunnel (a
very deep bulldozed trench with a roof added on top and grassed over
afterwards). Thanks to huge public opposition from people such as you, the
cut-and-cover plan is no more.
But what we have now is not very much better.The shocking details of the new scheme were released on June 3. The British
government and its roadbuilding wing, the Highways Agency, is still
promoting its plan as an "improvement" for Stonehenge, with glossy artist's
impressions of wide open green fields and empty local roads. The mockup of
the new tunnel entrance, for example, shows a road with only two
carriageways instead of four and absolutely no traffic on the new road
whatsoever! It's all highly misleading and very far from the truth. The
British government talks about its plan to remove "20th century clutter
from Stonehenge"; what it doesn't mention is its determination to replace
it with "21st century clutter" that in our view will be even more
destructive and intrusive.
The facts are these: The new highway would be 7.7 miles (12.4 km) long. A
small part of this new road (1.3 miles or 2.1 km -- about one sixth of it)
would be sunk into a tunnel bored (drilled) under the part of the World
Heritage Site nearest to the stone circle. But that still leaves over six
miles of massively destructive new road being bulldozed at ground level, or
in cuttings (deep trenches) through the priceless landscape around
Stonehenge. Let's make this totally clear: THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT STILL
INTENDS TO BULLDOZE OVER TWO MILES OF BRAND NEW, 4-LANE HIGHWAY AT GROUND
LEVEL THROUGH THE INTERNATIONALLY IMPORTANT STONEHENGE WORLD HERITAGE SITE.
The new road would also involve massive destructive at Longbarrow
Crossroads, the archaeologically sensitive area on the western edge of the
World Heritage Site.
Let's not pretend that this new highway is anything to do with protecting
Stonehenge. It is being built because the British government wants to
create a massive new highway from London to the West Country and
Stonehenge, unfortunately, is in the way. Don't be fooled by the glossy new
photos of grass and trees. The bottom line is this: The new Stonehenge plan
is a Trojan horse that will bulldoze four lanes of massive new road into
the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.
Stonehenge needs YOU!The British government has released its official plan in draft form (the
so-called "Draft Orders") for "public consultation". We urgently need
hundreds of people to object to this plan BEFORE 4TH SEPTEMBER 2003 so that
the government will hold a public inquiry (a bit like a court case at which
the merits of the plan can be discussed in detail). What we need you to do
is very simple. Please fill in and send off the standard letter of
objection attached below to the Stonehenge Project Team, Highways Agency,
Zone 2-05/K, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, BRISTOL BS1 6HA,
UK. Or you can send it by fax to (from UK) 0117 372 8238; (from overseas)
Your international dialling code + 44 117 372 8238. Please DO NOT send
emails; they will ignore them. By all means write your own letter or modify
ours however you wish, but be sure to make clear that you object to the
plan.
You can download the standard objection letter in various wordprocessed
formats (plain text TXT, rich-text format RTF, Microsoft Word DOC, or HTML)
from our website at
http://www.savestonehenge.org.uk/actnow.html2. How you can helpOur website has lots of other ideas on how you can help the campaign. Small
donations of money are a huge help and our campaign would have to stop
without them. We have no overheads or office costs, no paid staff and
everyone works on the campaign for free. Even our website is hosted free.
We are extremely cost-effective: every single pound/dollar we raise goes
directly toward the campaign to Save Stonehenge! If you'd like to make a
secure online donation, please go to
http://www.savestonehenge.org.uk/donate.htmlThanks as always for your support. Please get writing those objection
letters straight away!
Happy Solstice and have a great summer!
Chris
for Save Stonehenge!Email: info@savestonehenge.org.uk
Website:
http://www.savestonehenge.org.uk========================================================================
Stonehenge standard objection letter:
Please modify as you see fit, fill in the bits in [square brackets] and
either mail to the address below or return by fax. (Fax number: From UK
0117 372 8238; From Overseas: International code + 44 117 372 8238). The
closing date is 4th September 2003. But please do it straight away!
Stonehenge!, UK governement at war
dim. 6 oct. 2002, 16:44
