Stonehenge: fund the tunnel by toll trial - local MP

Salisbury MP Robert Key has called on Tony Blair to find the money to build a tunnel by trialling the road tolling initiative announced by his new Transport Secretary this week

Robert Key has told the Prime Minister that not just the local economy, but the whole of the South West of England is being damaged by continuing indecision over the road improvements and visitors centre planned for Stonehenge.

In a letter to the PM, Robert Key says, “it is an irony that after so many years of enquiry…we are now closer to agreement than ever before between the majority of heritage interests (led by English Heritage) and local interests (led by Wiltshire County Council and Salisbury District Council), plus the DCMS and the proposer of the scheme, the Secretary of State for Transport”.

Robert Key argues that taxpayers find it hard to justify the cost of the scheme when set against local needs for hospitals, schools and homes, and Ministers can’t afford it from their budgets. So, he says, an exceptional manner of funding will have to be authorised – and that should be tolling, with the cost being met from future road and tunnel tolls.

Former Heritage Minister and Roads Minister Key believes that Stonehenge is an internationally important site that is still labelled ‘a national disgrace’ for its poor facilities for tourists and that a major strategic route to the South West is now a bottleneck, causing traffic congestion and gridlock conditions with local village communities (including Winterbourne Stoke and Chicklade suffering from traffic, air, noise and light pollution).

‘If Douglas Alexander is as good as his word, he will welcome this initiative and all the challenges it brings, including rat-running and tolling technology’, he said.