Stonehenge centre puts town on map (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Stonehenge centre puts town on map

10:43am Sunday 24th August 2008

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A plan for improvements to the visitor facilities at Stonehenge, which it is claimed will bring benefits to the local business community, went on show in Devizes last week.

The public consultation display was at Wiltshire Heritage Museum and many people went to see what is being planned.

Peter Carson, English Heritage's director at the Stonehenge site, said improvements to the centre were long overdue.

He said: "I have been in charge at Stonehenge for five years and we are always getting letters of complaint about the state of the facilities there and asked when we are going to do something about it.

"The answer is that we have been trying for years to improve the situation, but the previous plan was wedded to alterations to the A303, which the Government decided last December was too expensive.

"So now we have come up with a number of options that are not dependent on improvements to the A303 and we have had a lot of good feedback already."

Four options were on display at the museum. They involve revamping the existing visitor centre, moving it a little way along the A344 to Fargo Plantation, off the road to Durrington Down Farm, or further along to Airmen's Cross or Rollestone Camp.

All options involve the closure of the A344.

Mr Carson said: "We already have a favourite option in the move to Fargo Plantation, but improvements to the existing site comes a close second.

"A report will be sent to the Government by the end of November and we hope to get a response from a Minister by December.

"Time is very tight. We want to have the new facilities in place for the London Olympics in 2012."

The opening of the exhibition coincided with an open evening at the museum, during which local historian Dr Lorna Haycock answered questions about Devizes' history and the Archaeology Field Group and told of digging in remote archaeological sites in of November.

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