Why have these changes been made in the revised Avebury Management Plan?
We believe these changes came about as a direct result of the Governments need to justify its A303 Improvement scheme at Stonehenge. The Government admits that it would be too expensive to protect the Stonehenge WHS by burying the A303 in a long bored tunnel. Their affordable scheme, considered at Public Inquiry last year, involved the construction of a 2.1km bored tunnel that would leave long tunnel cuttings and dual carriageways across about two thirds of the WHS, whilst a major interchange at the western edge of the WHS would severely compromise the setting of a magnificent barrow group. At the A303 Inquiry it was argued by English Heritage that only the Scheduled monuments were of Outstanding Universal Value and that Stonehenge could not be considered to be a cultural landscape: thus, so long as the monuments were not physically damaged, the road scheme would be acceptable. ICOMOS-UK as well as numerous archaeological and environmental groups argued otherwise but, unfortunately, th
