Stonehenge tunnel scrapped after having £179,000,000 spent on it

Stonehenge draws millions of visitors each year to Wiltshire (Picture: Getty)

Plans for a tunnel under Stonehenge have been officially binned by the government after £180 million has been pumped into the project.

The Department for Transport announced it has formally scrapped the project for a tunnel under the world-famous site after years of protests.

Campaigners have been fighting against proposals to dig a tunnel for cars under the location of the world heritage site since the idea was first proposed in 1994.

The plans were finally approved in 2023, and the government secured a development consent order (DCO) until 2028, but the Labour government put the scheme on hold in 2024 after costs were expected to reach £1.4bn.

Now the Department for Transport has officially revoked the DCO for the scheme, and the tunnel will not be built.

The tunnel’s costs, including the planning expenses, have already reached £179,200,000.

The proposal had hoped ot upgrade the A303 between Amesbury and Berwick Down (Picture: National Highways)

The decision, confirmed by Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, brings an end to the long-running proposal to upgrade the A303 between Amesbury and Berwick Down, in Wiltshire.

Romsey and Southampton North MP Caroline Nokes said the move would be ‘disappointing’ for some residents who had hoped it would ease congestion in the area.

She said: ‘The A303 remains the gateway to the West Country, and an important strategic route going past the world’s most famous prehistoric monument is not an ideal combination.’

Campaign group Stonehenge Alliance welcomed the decision, describing it as the end of a decade-long fight against the scheme.

Acting chairman Mike Birkin said the project would have caused ‘enormous damage’ to the wider landscape of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.

He said: ‘The WHS is a designation of an entire landscape that is full of prehistoric monuments of incalculable value.

‘The granting of the DCO was always perverse, given the enormous damage it would have caused to the unique landscape of the Stonehenge WHS.’

The tunnel would have alleviated traffic in the region (Picture: National Highways)

The group said the scheme’s cancellation leaves untouched the issue of poor connectivity to the south-west region.

It added that revocation of the Stonehenge scheme is an opportunity to invest some of the saved budget in the region’s active travel and public transport networks to grow business, jobs, housing and access for all.

Mr Birkin said: ‘The rail network to the South West suffers from a degraded infrastructure which is notoriously unreliable and vulnerable to extreme weather events.

‘Upgrading the network would contribute to the government’s commitment to reducing car mileage as recommended by the Climate Change Committee.’

Expressing his anger and disappointment, council leader Ian Thorne then said: ‘Revoking the DCO for the A303 Stonehenge Tunnel is completely unacceptable, not least because the Government has done nothing to facilitate an early discussion on an alternative solution.

‘This proposal disregards years of planning, consultation and investment, and throws away a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve one of the region’s most vital transport corridors.’

‘It would condemn local communities to continued congestion and rat-running; it would undermine efforts to unlock jobs and investment across Wiltshire and the wider South West; it wastes public money and the infrastructure already put in place; it compromises the environmental benefits that could have been achieved; and it also delays any future progress by forcing the entire process to start from scratch.’

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