Last week the Court of Appeal announced it would hear Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site’s (SSWHS) challenge to the High Court decision in February this year. Then, Mr Justice Holgate dismissed SSWHS’s application for a judicial review of the government’s decision to approve the road scheme.
John Adams, chair of the Stonehenge Alliance and one of three SSWHS directors, welcomed the news.
“All those who care passionately about our cultural heritage can breathe a sigh of relief. We now have a new opportunity for the government decision to be thoroughly scrutinised,” he said.
“This road scheme would be incredibly damaging to Stonehenge World Heritage Site. Yet, the government doesn’t seem to care and is desperately trying to bulldoze through this decision before it is thrown out of office.”
SSWHS said UNESCO and more than 238,000 people opposed the National Highways scheme.
National Highways said it was “hugely disappointed” by the court decision and the appeal would “cause more delays to this scheme as the next stage of the legal process unfolds”.
“We still have our Development Consent Order (DCO) in place and the scheme isn’t cancelled. But this extra legal process will delay the start of our preliminary works and we’ll need to adjust the whole main works programme accordingly. We don’t know what that will look like yet, because we don’t know the extent of the delay,” National Highways said.
It added that work to install high voltage cabling to supply electricity for construction and tunnel operation would continue.
SSWHS’s solicitor, Rowan Smith, said that in granting permission for the challenge, the Court of Appeal acknowledged “the scale of public interest around ensuring that a decision about the future of Stonehenge is lawful”.
“The court said there is a compelling reason for an appeal hearing. Our client is looking forward to presenting arguments about the fairness of the decision-making process relating to the future of Stonehenge as well as compliance with international law protecting the World Heritage Site,” said Smith.
SSWHS now has to raise a further £34,000 for the hearing.
The A303 Stonehenge scheme, which comprises 12.9km of new dual carriageway, including a 3.2km tunnel, was initially granted consent in 2020 but, following a legal challenge over concerns about the environmental impact on the UNESCO World Heritage site, the decision was quashed by the High Court in 2021.
The government gave it the green light again in July last year when it granted a Development Consent Order. The scheme was put on hold again in December when campaigners called for a judicial review, which was subsequently dismissed by the High Court.
In 2022, National Highways awarded the main works contract to the More joint venture, comprising FCC Construcción, WeBuild and BeMo Tunnelling, to deliver the £1.25bn (US$1.64bn) tunnel and main construction work.
