Heritage Action Forums

Nadhim Zahawi, the MP for Stratford on Avon and member of the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit, has today expressed concern that the Government’s planning reforms are causing ‘physical harm’ to our countryside, which is under ‘intense attack’ from ‘rapacious developers’

Furious visitors to the new £27 million Stonehenge visitor centre have criticised English Heritage for ‘chaotic scenes’ as the venue struggles to cope with the number of people attending.

Staff and volunteers at the new centre, which opened just three weeks ago, have also voiced their concerns at how it is coping with thousands of visitors every day.

One volunteer, who declined to be named, said it was immediately obvious the centre would not be able to cope with the numbers of people visiting.

“The problem is the transport, getting people to and from the stones,” he said. “They have abandoned the idea of only using the Land Trains, we’ve got coaches now, which kind of defeats the object. Also, when it’s windy or raining, those in the ticket office can’t open the windows to serve people because the rain blows in, it’s been built facing the wrong direction,” he added.

A new road which campaigners tried to have rerouted to save the site of a Bronze Age burial monument has won planning permission.

A dig ahead of work starting on the Great Western Park estate in Didcot, Oxfordshire, discovered humans had lived on the site for 9,000 years.

The Eastern link road, approved by South Oxfordshire District Council, will cut across the pond barrow site.

Builder Taylor Wimpey said archaeology had already been cleared from the area.