Druid campaigns at Stonehenge

9:28am Wednesday 2nd July 2008

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ONE of the country's most senior druids has set up a permanent camp close to Stonehenge - to fight for it to be fully opened.

King Arthur Pendragon, has been camping close to the World Heritage site since the summer solstice on June 21.

He is demonstrating on behalf of the Council of British Druid Orders to remove fences around the monument build a tunnel over the A303 and grass over the A344.

"That's what they promised to do but the Government said they couldn't afford the tunnel," said King Arthur.

"It's too commercialised.

"We want something exactly like Avebury. These 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 does 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 tunnel.

The plans were scrapped in December last year after ministers decided the costs, which had spiralled from £223m to £470m, 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 working on new proposals that we hope will improve visitor facilities and the setting of Stonehenge in time for the Olympic Games in 2012."

The Government has now launched a three-month public consultation.