STONEHENGE: TUNNELLING THROUGH A WORLD HERITAGE SITE: R. EX PARTE SAVE STONEHENGE WORLD HERITAGE SITE LTD V SECRETARY OF STATE FOR TRANSPORT.
| Author | Hawkes-Reynolds, Rebecca |
On 30 July 2021 the High Court granted a judicial review and a quashing order following a 'rolled up' hearing of the Secretary of State for Transport's decision to grant the Development Consent Order (of 18 November 2020) for the construction of the tunnel to replace the existing A303 past the Scheduled Monument of Stonehenge.
THE FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Stonehenge is an important Neolithic stone circle that has been a Scheduled Monument since 1882. (2) It is not an isolated archaeological feature, but sits within an extremely complex funerary and ceremonial landscape spanning the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with occasional use in other periods. The importance and significance of both Stonehenge and its associated landscape lies at the heart of the Statement of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the World Heritage Site (WHS). (3) The WHS covers 4,985 hectares and includes 175 Scheduled Monuments, with over 700 known archaeological features of which 415 are protected by the Scheduled Monuments legislation. There are also two Registered Parks and Gardens and 60 listed buildings. There is also a huge number of non-designated archaeological features, both known and unknown. (4)
On 18 October 2018, Highways England applied for a Development Consent Order (DCO) under section 37 of the Planning Act 2008. This DCO proposed the construction of a new dual carriageway bypass with a bored tunnel following the line of the existing A303 just south of the Scheduled Monument of Stonehenge. The length of the tunnel would be 3.3km with both the eastern and western tunnel entrances within the World Heritage Site as well as a new dual-carriageway with a new grade-separated junction with a flyover to the east joining the A303 to the A345. There would also be a new 1km-long dual carriageway within the WHS in a cutting, known as the western cutting, connecting the western portal of the tunnel.
Following the lodging of the DCO, a panel of five planning experts ('Examining Authority') examined the proposal and all associated documents between 2 April and 2 October 2019. (5) On 2 January 2020 the Examining Authority issued its report to the Secretary of State for Transport. The Examining Authority's report had concerns relating to several aspects of the scheme including the western cutting, the appropriateness of the analysis and assessment methodology, the mitigation strategy and its effectiveness in protecting the archaeology of the WHS, the effects of the proposed development on spatial relations, visual relations, and settings, cumulative and in-combination effects and the effects on WHS OUV and the historic environment as a whole, and as such concluded that there would be substantial harm to Stonehenge and the WHS and therefore recommended refusing the DCO. Following the issuing of the report, the Secretary of State began by requesting comments from Historic England (as a statutory consultee) and allowed further representations to be made by interested parties. On 12 November 2020 the DCO was granted and the claim for judicial review was filed on 22 December 2020. Permission for a 'rolled up hearing' (6) was granted on 16...
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