The Government wants to revoke a Development Consent Order for the A303 Stonehenge Tunnel scheme
Author: Aaron HarperPublished 13th Nov 2025
A campaign group has welcomed a Government proposal to remove a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the A303 Stonehenge Tunnel.
The scheme was halted by the Labour administration in July 2024 on cost grounds, but now wants to remove a consent order allowing development to take place.
The Department for Transport has now published a draft revoking order, with representations able to be made until 21 November.
It’s a move that’s been criticised by Wiltshire Council, who say it will damage connectivity and growth in the South West. But Stonehenge Alliance says it “strongly supports” the plan, saying the scheme would cause “immense damage” to the World Heritage site and be an investment that would provide “scant benefits”.
Acting Chairman for Stonehenge Alliance, Mike Birkin, said: “The road and tunnel scheme was condemned by the planning inspectors and UNESCO’s experts as well as our quarter of a million petitioners worldwide. The Alliance wants to see the Stonehenge landscape protected for the very long term.
“In the current economic climate, it is a fantasy to imagine that government would want to invest in this scheme. Without a heritage benefit the return on investment would have been negative. On its own the Stonehenge tunnel would not make much difference to the connectivity to the south west. At the time of the scheme’s cancellation, the scheme was little more than a hyper-extravagant local bypass.”
Mike told Greatest Hits Radio that the removal of the DCO would alleviate the “threat” of the scheme being restarted.
“So long as that piece of paper remained in a minister’s filing cabinet, that permit is still live. It could, at some point in the future be resurrected,” he said. “It really is a sense of security and it felt like there was potentially always a threat hanging over the Stonehenge World Heritage site.”
The order, which has a five year lifespan, was due to expire in 2028, but Mike said he’s pleased to see the Government taking action before that date, adding that it would be a “tortuous” process to restart the project without the DCO.
However, Stonehenge Alliance agrees with Wiltshire Council, and other leaders of the Wessex Partnership, that infrastructure improvements are needed in the South West.
Leaders of Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset and Bournemouth councils have condemned the proposal, saying that it’s “a damaging and short-sighted decision that disregards years of planning, consultation and investment,” insisting it’s a step backwards for growth in the region.
Mike shares some of those concerns, saying that having no alternative to fall back on is a “short sighted move”.
“We have in the southwest suffered from years of neglect to investment in our transport infrastructure,” he said, before referencing the state of disrepair of the parallel railway line through Salisbury to Exeter.
He said: “Services are being reduced and trains are having to run at reduced speed just because of the damage to the to the railway lines caused by the drought that we’ve had this summer. So yeah, clearly we are crying out for investment in infrastructure in the Southwest.”
He also said a solution to “rat running” through local communities, which becomes an issue when the A303 is congested.
“We totally support the idea that Wiltshire Council, National Highways and government agencies should get together and look at a better thing to do, hopefully for less money, but bringing much better results and without having to inflict really serious damage on the World Heritage site.”
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