BAD NEWS.....WORSE NEWS.....AND EVEN WORSE NEWS......

So, after years and years of indecision, HM Gov. has at last made a decision about the appalling state of affairs concerning Stonehenge, the Visitor Centre and the traffic problems on the nearby A303. And the decision is......to do precisely nothing. The costs of the much vaunted scheme to provide a tunnel under the World Heritage Site monument have risen to £544million - too much for the Government to bear it seems and so they have simply pulled the plug on any improvements whatsoever and compounded the felony by not coming up with any alternatives.

UNESCO - the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation - which is responsible for maintaining the list of World Heritage Sites, don`t think much of this non-decision. They have held their tongues a bit in their published statement at http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/400 but it`s clear they are not impressed...and rightly so.

That`s the bad news. The worse news is that, for the foreseeable future, visitors will have to put up with the quite appalling `facilities, about which I have complained before. See my `A STOP ALONG THE WAY` rant on 11th September in `older posts` section - link at bottom of this page. Those `facilities` are a national and international disgrace and I`m not surprised that UNESCO is suggesting that they may "fully examine the implications of this (non) decision for the value and integrity of Stonehenge as a World Heritage Site." A veiled threat if ever I saw one.

You don`t play around with World Heritage Sites, you don`t play around with Stonehenge and you sure as hell don`t play around with the heritage of a nation which relies more and more on the contribution its cultural heritage makes to the country`s tourism industry.

Now for the even worse news, which brings the Government`s shameful abdication down to the human level, because of the effect this shambles will have on the good folk of a small Wiltshire country village. Winterbourne Stoke lies not far from Stonehenge and is the last remaining village along the whole length of the A303 still plagued by an average 30,000 vehicles a day trundling through its one street.

For years, a campaign has rightly been waged to include the by-passing of Winterbourne Stoke in any proposal for sorting out the Stonehenge traffic problem. The villagers have been made promises, they have seen scheme after scheme put on the Government`s back burner and now it appears they have no hope of ever seeing an improvement to their environment.

(Winterbourne Stoke)

Maybe - very probably - because they are a small, isolated, rural community they don`t figure largely on the Government`s radar. But it is precisely because of the nature of their community that they deserve an urgent solution to the problems which they have endured for so many years. If HM Gov. cannot live up to their responsibilites concerning the World Heritage Site, surely they can do so by bringing forward a seperate scheme to improve the lives of the good folk of Winterbourne Stoke, if for no other reason than to assuage my guilt each time I drive through their village as I head west .