Inquiry

Last updated: 7 December 2007

This page covers the 2006 inquiry into English Heritage's Stonehenge Visitor Centre and the 2004 inquiry into the A303 highway scheme—the two major elements of the Stonehenge Project.

2007: Final decision on the road scheme

A303 Stonehenge Improvement Scheme, Statement by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Tom Harris), 6 December 2007.
A303 Stonehenge improvement scheme: Decision letter and Stage 2 report, Official decision letter and reports explaining the decision, 6 December 2007.

These official documents may, in time, disappear from government websites. If you find these links are broken at some point in the future, you can track the reports down by visiting our archive page, where we've put copies.

2006: Public inquiry into English Heritage's Visitor Centre

Earlier this year English Heritage resubmitted their planning application to develop a new visitor centre for Stonehenge. Salisbury District Council approved the application in July, subject to a number of conditions. This application was identical to the one English Heritage submitted to the council in 2004, which was rejected. A public inquiry held by the Planning Inspectorate took place in the Methodist Church in St Edmund's Church Street, Salisbury in December 2006.

Supporting the application

For official documents supporting the application, see the Salisbury District Council Stonehenge inquiry website.

Summary of Salisbury District Council's closing statement to the inquiry. Download the PDF.

Opposing the application

These are summaries of the proofs of evidence submitted by the Stonehenge Alliance, which opposes the visitor centre plan. Unfortunately, most of the documents are currently available only in Adobe Acrobat/Reader (PDF) format. If you have difficulties reading PDFs, or you would like the full proofs (which are very large files), please email us.

Summary of the Stonehenge Alliance's closing statement to the inquiry (PDF format).
Summary of proof of evidence by George McDonic on landscape and environment matters. Browse as an ordinary web page or download the PDF.

Summary of proof of evidence by Kate Fielden (on 1. History of the stonehenge visitor centre project; 2. Impact of the land train on archaeology and the WHS; 3. Visitor facilities and the need to protect the WHS; 4. The appropriate assessment in respect of the River Avon Special Area of Conservation.) Download the PDF.

Summary of proof of evidence by Kate Freeman and Margaret Willmot on traffic and transport. Download the PDF.

Summary of proof of evidence by Andy Norfolk on landscape and visual impacts. Download the PDF.

Proof of evidence by John Moon on noise disturbance due to land train. This one is the complete document, not just the summary. Download the PDF.

2004: Public inquiry for the A303 road scheme

The public inquiry began on Tuesday 17 February 2004 and ran until 11 May 2004.

Inspector's report

The official Inspector's report has finally been published (20 July 2005). You can download it from the Department for Transport website.

Post inquiry

For a quick summary of the proceedings (albeit from an opponent's point of view), you might like to read Kate Fielden's summary of the public inquiry. Many thanks to Kate for letting us publish this here.

There's a longer and more detailed summary of objections in the Stonehenge Alliance's closing statement to the inquiry.

Official documentation

For the time being at least, full details of the inquiry, including comprehensive documents and links, on the Planning Inspectorate's Stonehenge Inquiry website.
Non-Technical Summary of the Environmental Statement: This is a quick summary that puts forward arguments in favour of the scheme.

Responses from objectors

These are letters arguing against the scheme:

National CPRE's objection to the Draft Orders, 4 September 2003.
Friends of the Earth's objection to the Draft Orders, 4 September 2003.
Transport 2000 National Office objection to the Draft Orders, 3 September 2003.
Friends of the Earth Wiltshire Network's objection to the Draft Orders, 3 September 2003.
Wiltshire CPRE's objection to the Draft Orders, 1 September 2003.
Dr Christopher Gillham's objection to the Draft Orders, 1 September 2003.
East Amesbury Residents Group's objection to the Draft Orders, 1 September 2003.
Dr Karl Brazier's objection to the Draft Orders, 26 August 2003.
Pagan Federation's objection to the Draft Orders, 25 August 2003.
Salisbury Transport 2000's objection to the Draft Orders, 18 August 2003.
Stonehenge Alliance's Letter of objection to the Draft Orders, 10 August 2003.
Dr John and Mrs Julie Moon's Letter of objection to their MP, July 2003.
UK Rivers Network's Letter of objection to the Draft Orders, 27 June 2003.

If you have written an objection and you would like us to put it up here, please email it to us. Thanks!

Statements of case

These are outlines (summaries) of the cases different groups will be making at the inquiry: