>
> 1. Urgent: Stonehenge needs YOU to stop massively destructive highway!
>
> It's mid-June 2003 and the Summer Solstice will soon be here. That's
> normally a time for great celebration at Stonehenge. But this year things
> will be a little different. The British government has just published the
> full details of how it plans to bulldoze a new four-lane highway through
> the world-famous heritage site. British environmental groups, under the
> banner of the Stonehenge Alliance, have roundly condemned the scheme as
> "massively destructive". Save Stonehenge! urgently needs your help, once
> again, for the next stage of our campaign. Please read on!
>
> Last time we wrote to you, back in December, the British government had
> announced it was softening its original plan to bulldoze the road straight
> through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The original plan would have
> sunk the middle part of the road into a so-called "cut-and-cover" tunnel
(a
> very deep bulldozed trench with a roof added on top and grassed over
> afterwards). Thanks to huge public opposition from people such as you, the
> cut-and-cover plan is no more.
>
> But what we have now is not very much better.
>
> The shocking details of the new scheme were released on June 3. The
British
> government and its roadbuilding wing, the Highways Agency, is still
> promoting its plan as an "improvement" for Stonehenge, with glossy
artist's
> impressions of wide open green fields and empty local roads. The mockup of
> the new tunnel entrance, for example, shows a road with only two
> carriageways instead of four and absolutely no traffic on the new road
> whatsoever! It's all highly misleading and very far from the truth. The
> British government talks about its plan to remove "20th century clutter
> from Stonehenge"; what it doesn't mention is its determination to replace
> it with "21st century clutter" that in our view will be even more
> destructive and intrusive.
>
> The facts are these: The new highway would be 7.7 miles (12.4 km) long. A
> small part of this new road (1.3 miles or 2.1 km -- about one sixth of it)
> would be sunk into a tunnel bored (drilled) under the part of the World
> Heritage Site nearest to the stone circle. But that still leaves over six
> miles of massively destructive new road being bulldozed at ground level,
or
> in cuttings (deep trenches) through the priceless landscape around
> Stonehenge. Let's make this totally clear: THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT STILL
> INTENDS TO BULLDOZE OVER TWO MILES OF BRAND NEW, 4-LANE HIGHWAY AT GROUND
> LEVEL THROUGH THE INTERNATIONALLY IMPORTANT STONEHENGE WORLD HERITAGE
SITE.
> The new road would also involve massive destructive at Longbarrow
> Crossroads, the archaeologically sensitive area on the western edge of the
> World Heritage Site.
>
> Let's not pretend that this new highway is anything to do with protecting
> Stonehenge. It is being built because the British government wants to
> create a massive new highway from London to the West Country and
> Stonehenge, unfortunately, is in the way. Don't be fooled by the glossy
new
> photos of grass and trees. The bottom line is this: The new Stonehenge
plan
> is a Trojan horse that will bulldoze four lanes of massive new road into
> the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.
>
> Stonehenge needs YOU!
>
> The British government has released its official plan in draft form (the
> so-called "Draft Orders") for "public consultation". We urgently need
> hundreds of people to object to this plan BEFORE 4TH SEPTEMBER 2003 so
that
> the government will hold a public inquiry (a bit like a court case at
which
> the merits of the plan can be discussed in detail). What we need you to do
> is very simple. Please fill in and send off the standard letter of
> objection below to the Stonehenge Project Team, Highways Agency, Zone
> 2-05/K, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, BRISTOL BS1 6HA, UK.
> Or you can send it by fax. From the UK, fax to: 0117 372 8238; from
> overseas, fax to: (Your international dialling code) + 44 117 372 8238.
> Please DO NOT send emails; they will ignore them. By all means write your
> own letter or modify ours however you wish, but be sure to make clear that
> you object to the plan.
>
> You can download the standard objection letter in various wordprocessed
> formats (plain text TXT, rich-text format RTF, Microsoft Word DOC, or
HTML)
> from our website at  http://www.savestonehenge.org.uk/actnow.html
>
> 2. How you can help
>
> Our website has lots of other ideas on how you can help the campaign.
Small
> donations of money are a huge help and our campaign would have to stop
> without them. We have no overheads or office costs, no paid staff and
> everyone works on the campaign for free. Even our website is hosted free.
> We are extremely cost-effective: every single pound/dollar we raise goes
> directly toward the campaign to Save Stonehenge! If you'd like to make a
> secure online donation, please go to
>  http://www.savestonehenge.org.uk/donate.html
>
> Thanks as always for your support. Please get writing those objection
> letters straight away!
>
> Happy Solstice and have a great summer!
>
> Chris
> for Save Stonehenge!
> Email:  info@savestonehenge.org.uk
> Website:  http://www.savestonehenge.org.uk