High court date set for A303 Tunnel hearing
Campaigners have been told a three-day hearing will take place this summer
A High Court date has been set in the legal fight which is seeking to overturn the A303 Stonehenge tunnel decision.
The High Court hearing begins on 23rd June 2021.
Save Stonehenge WHS Ltd. (SSWHS) have just revealed that they heard this week that a three-day High Court hearing will take place from 23rd to 25th June.
The High Court date was confirmed on Wednesday (24th Feb).
GRANT SHAPPS IN A303 LEGAL FIGHT
SSWHS is challenging a decision, by the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, to go ahead with what they claim is 'the highly damaging' A303 dual carriageway through the World Heritage Site.
Mr Shapps' decision was taken against the advice of a panel of five senior Planning Inspectors (the Examining Authority) who formally examined the scheme in 2019.
The Inspectors considered that the scheme's benefits "would not outweigh the harm arising from the excavation of a deep, wide cutting and other engineering works, within the Wold Heritage Site and its setting, of a scale and nature not previously experienced historically in this 'landscape without parallel'".
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, who gave the WHS its international designation in 1986, has also condemned the road scheme.
The complexity of the case has obliged SSWHS to raise its funding target for the legal challenge, including the three-day hearing.
Kate Fielden, Hon Secretary the Stonehenge Alliance and SSWHS, said:
"Having a date for the court hearing gives us something to aim for in preparing for our challenge to Grant Shapps' outrageous decision. We urge our supporters to help us to continue the fight to save our famous World Heritage Site from this appalling scheme. There can be no more iconic symbol of the global heritage of mankind than Stonehenge and we have a duty to safeguard it for future generations."
ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN GROUP
SSWHS is a company established by individual Stonehenge Alliance supporters to take forward the legal action. The Stonehenge Alliance supporter-organisations are: Ancient Sacred Landscape Network; CPRE; FoE; Rescue, the British Archaeological Trust; and Transport Action Network.