We have launched a new crowdfunder to challenge the Government's decision, on 14 July 2023, to once again approve a highly damaging road through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. Please use this new crowdfunder from now on to support our work.

A big thank you to everyone who contributed to this crowdfunder set up during our first legal action launched in 2020 to prevent a new road being built through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. Despite being successful and the Government's approval of the A303 Stonehenge scheme being quashed by the High Court on 30 July 2021, we kept this crowdfunder open as we always suspected that the Government would try and force through the same damaging scheme again. We were proved right on 14 July 2023, when they approved it days before the Somerset and Frome by-election.

Any money raised on this crowdfunding page since then will go towards paying for the legal advice needed for a second challenge. However, to make things simpler and easier to understand moving forwards, we have set up a new crowdfunder for this latest legal action. So please contribute if you can: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-stonehenge-world-heritage-site-again/ and share with friends and family.

We've seen off National Highways once and with your help we will do so again, and safeguard Stonehenge World Heritage Site for future generations!

Chris, John and Mike

Today the Government has announced it has approved, for a second time, the discredited National Highways Stonehenge scheme which 5 planning inspectors recommended should be refused and to which UNESCO objected. It once again risks the status of Stonehenge as a World Heritage Site.

Despite the previous decision being quashed by the courts, in part due to a lack of proper consideration of alternatives, it appears the Government really doesn't care about the damage this road will do. There still has been no proper consideration of alternative solutions, while the economic case for the road makes no sense at all. As we have argued, there should be a new examination of the scheme to look at this complex and critical issue. It is too important to be done by a few written submissions with no independent scrutiny of National Highways' outlandish claims.

That's why we desperately need to raise funds to seek a legal opinion about this second Government decision. That will help us decide whether we can once again challenge the Government in the courts to safeguard the future of the Stonehenge landscape and World Heritage Site. Please contribute if you can. 

Many thanks

PS - for the latest news please look on the Stonehenge Alliance's website

On 30 November, Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary, announced he would be redetermining the application for the Stonehenge scheme. He issued a statement of matters outlining what further information he wanted to consider when remaking his decision. He then asked National Highways to respond first and by the 11 January. They have now done so but their response has not yet been published. When it is, it is expected that interested parties such as the Stonehenge Alliance will be asked to submit their response and to comment on anything National Highways has said.

At the time of this update, we do not know when this next stage will take place, nor are we clear whether there will be further rounds of consultation before Grant Shapps makes a new decision.

We remain alert as ever to the danger that the Government is keen to force through this highly damaging scheme come what may and as such, we have to be prepared for a potential second legal challenge. We will update this page with any developments as and when they arise.

Damaging road scheme thrown out by High Court

Thanks to our brilliant legal team we have succeeded in getting the planning permission (the Development Consent Order) for the A303 Stonehenge scheme quashed in the High Court.

The judge found that the Transport Secretary did not have all of the evidence needed lawfully to carry out the ‘heritage’ balancing exercise required by planning policy; and that he had unlawfully left out of account consideration of a less damaging alternative to the scheme, such as a longer tunnel.

Our heartfelt thanks go to all of our supporters without whom we could not have made this legal challenge.

Despite this fantastic victory, the battle may not be over. We will find out in the next few weeks whether the Secretary of State will appeal the judgement. He could also seek to amend the scheme, but that would take a lot longer. Therefore, at present we will keep this crowdfunder open until we know where we stand.

In the meantime, let’s celebrate this remarkable victory and be thankful that Stonehenge World Heritage Site has been saved from Highways England’s highly destructive road scheme.

Many thanks,

Chris, John, Mike & Kate

On Wednesday (23^rd June) our legal challenge to Grant Shapps’ decision to approve the highly damaging road scheme through the World Heritage Site will be heard at the High Court. The hearing, which is likely to last for 3 days may be our last chance to stop this wanton destruction.

The hearing is taking place in person at the Royal Courts of Justice, but only our legal team will be allowed to attend. The public, however, can watch proceedings online, but need to register with the court, the day before (on the Tuesday) as follows:

To observe proceedings remotely, people need to email [email protected] no earlier than Tuesday 22^nd June, with case ref. no. CO/4844/2020. A link will be sent to them up to 15 minutes before the hearing. Please note it is illegal to record or take any screenshots of proceedings.

While we will be anxious to know what the judgement will be, it’s unlikely to be known for some time.

Success at the first hurdle! On 24 February we learnt that our challenge to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ shocking decision to go ahead with the A303 Stonehenge scheme would be heard in the High Court on 23 – 25 June.

Apart from the Department for Transport defending our challenge, Highways England and Historic England will also be taking part as interested parties.

We’re contesting the decision on the following grounds:

• Harm to each heritage asset within the project should have been weighed in the balance, instead of considering the “historic environment” as a whole.
• None of the advice provided by Historic England provided the evidential basis for the Secretary of State’s conclusion of “less than substantial harm” to any of the assets impacted by the project.
• He allowed purported “heritage benefits” to be weighed against heritage harm, before deciding whether that overall harm was “substantial” or “less than substantial”, which was unlawful under the National Policy Statement
• He failed to take into account that development consent would breach the World Heritage Convention
• He left out of account mandatory material considerations: the breach of various local policies; the impact of his finding of heritage harm which undermined the business case for the proposal and the existence of at least one alternative

Thanks to your generosity we reached our initial target of £50,000 very quickly and this enabled us to go forward with the necessary preparation work for the judicial review. However, due to the complicated nature of the case and the amount of work needed for a three-day hearing, we are having to raise our target to £80,000. We hope you understand and feel able to continue to support us. Legal action is expensive and although our lawyers are working for us at a heavily discounted rate, costs mount up. We also have to bear in mind that any decision could be appealed which we would potentially have to fundraise for as well.

Nevertheless, we are firmly committed to the fight to save Stonehenge World Heritage Site from irreparable damage and with your help we have successfully negotiated the first hurdle. Now we need to prepare for the hearing.

Thanks for your support so far, we cannot do this without you.

We are overwhelmed by the generosity of over 2,000 donors who have met our stretch target of £50,000 within a month! Thank you all so much for your wonderful support which means that we now have funding to go forward to the next stage. BBC online news reported this fantastic achievement on 31 December.

Donors’ support allowed our application to be made on 23 December for a judicial review of Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ decision to proceed with the A303 Stonehenge tunnel scheme.  Our lawyers issued a press release on the same day which sets out the key grounds of our challenge. We expect to hear from a judge later in January whether we have a case.

Legal action is both expensive and unpredictable. Even if we have a case it could eventually lead to an appeal which would involve greater costs than so far anticipated. Any funds raised over the £50,000 we need for the judicial review stage will be prioritised to pay any further costs that might be incurred on our case.

So we continue to welcome donations to the appeal and sincerely hope that the strength of concern shown for protection of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site brings a positive outcome for this internationally valued heritage landscape in 2021.

We send all good wishes to our supporters for the New Year and will continue to post updates on the case when we have news.

Thanks to the amazing generosity of over 1,000 people we've smashed our initial target in less than 60 hours. This means we've been able to kick-start the challenge as we can now cover the preparation costs.

This is really great news, especially at such a difficult time for many. We know that people are shocked and angry at Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ decision to approve the highly damaging dual carriageway through Stonehenge World Heritage Site, against the advice of UNESCO and the government’s own independent planning inspectorate. And that outrage has not been confined to the UK: A former Prime Minister of New Zealand expressed her concern on Twitter.

We received good coverage of our launch, including on ITV, BBC Points West, BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph (£), Mail online, The Times (£) and many more. We know that people care passionately about our heritage and very much want us to succeed.

We now need to push on to our £50,000 target so that we can apply for a judicial review before Christmas. A judge will then decide, sometime in the New Year, whether we have a case (which we certainly believe we do!).

We are tremendously grateful for everyone's support. Please continue to share our appeal with friends, family and colleagues. This could help us raise the remaining money and give us a fighting chance to stop this wanton vandalism of one of the world’s most iconic heritage sites.