Druid keeps up Stonehenge protest

9:14am Tuesday 1st July 2008

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STONEHENGE has become a makeshift home for a senior Druid who has vowed to keep up a protest until authorities promise to protect the site and open it fully to the public.

Demonstrating on behalf of the Council of British Druid Orders, King Arthur Pendragon, has been camping close to the World Heritage site since the Summer Solstice on June 21.

Pendragon, 54, is hoping his protests will encourage the Government to remove the fences around the monument, build a tunnel over the A303 and grass over the A344.

He said: "That's what they promised to do but the Government said they couldn't afford the tunnel.

"It's too commercialised. We want something exactly like Avebury. Those fences have been here since 1978."

Mr Pendragon once protested at Stonehenge for three months in 1990 to get the stones opened up to the public during the Solstice celebrations.

He said: "The visitor centre, set up 14 years ago, was supposed to be a temporary building. It's awful. It is a national disgrace so what I am hoping to do by my protest is embarrass the Government into raising the issue.

"English Heritage won't do anything to improve it until the Government do something to improve the roads so nothing is going to change, but what I'm hoping to do is raise awareness that nothing is going to happen."

A public inquiry was set up in 2004 to look at ways of improving the traffic flow in and around the Stonehenge area.

Among the many options that were discussed were a new dual carriageway and a 2.1km bored tunnel.

The plans were scrapped in December last year after ministers decided the costs, which had spiralled from £223m to £470, could not be justified.

A spokesman for English Heritage (EH) said: "EH was very disappointed that the Government rejected the 2.1km bored tunnel scheme for improvements to the A303 last December.

"This decision marked the end of the project championed by the Department for Culture Media and Sport and EH over the last eight years which sought to improve both the landscape setting of Stonehenge and the visitor experience. "However, EH, along with a range of national and regional stakeholders, are currently working on new proposals that we hope will improve visitor facilities and the setting of Stonehenge in time for the Olympic Games in 2012."