New car park for Stonehenge (From This Is Wiltshire)

New car park for Stonehenge

9:04am Friday 30th March 2007

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The National Trust has welcomed the intention to provide new facilities for visitors, with a car and coach park, outside the Stonehenge World Heritage Site and its sensitive landscapes.

It said: "The Trust looks forward to the opportunity to restore much of the tranquillity of the stones and surrounding monuments.

"However, the Trust's support for the Visitor Facilities and Access Scheme hinges substantially on the completion of a tunnel of acceptable length or an alternative which removes traffic while protecting the integrity of the World Heritage Site.

"In the Trust's view the Published Scheme, with its 2.1km of tunnel and about 3.4km of surface dual carriageway within the World Heritage Site, fails to meet this vision. "

The National Trust first acquired land at Stonehenge in 1927, to restore an earlier condition of things by the removal of unsightly objects' rather than to protect the status quo.

It said: "We would have difficulty allowing the introduction of a transit scheme (part of Visitor Centre and Access Scheme) over our land without first ensuring the removal of the even more unsightly A303 and A344.

"The Trust cannot accept the introduction of a new road for a Land Train through land it protects permanently for the benefit of everyone while, a short distance away, traffic still roars along open stretches of dual carriageway. "

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