A FORMER Amesbury mayor campaigning against a tunnel at Stonehenge says roads chiefs behind the scheme will be remembered for destroying Britain’s history.

Andy Rhind-Tutt set out his arguments in response to the Highways England public consultation on the controversial A303 tunnel proposals.

He said the public had not been given a “crucial choice” between a tunnel and a Salisbury bypass, an alternative he has championed for several years.

The latter, he said, would bring a massive boost for tourism and the economy, as well as solving traffic problems in the city.

The tunnel, however, would be expensive and dangerous, he said.

It would have an “astronomical” lifelong annual running cost, create havoc and light pollution when regularly closed, and destroy one of the world’s most significant archaeological landscapes, he said.

The “self-destructing timebomb” would become an “ecological disaster”, decimate chalk aquifers feeding the River Avon and even put the foundations of Salisbury Cathedral at risk, he said.

Mr Rhind-Tutt also claimed the tunnel would “significantly increase” the risk of death from breakdowns, fires and accidents underground.

And rather than solving local traffic problems, the tunnel would cause “catastrophic and unavoidable” rat running through nearby villages when closed for repairs and emergencies, he said.

“Our descendants will name you as those who destroyed Stonehenge and Britain’s history,” he wrote.

“Whilst an improved road to the west may improve the journey times marginally over 100 mile long journeys, moving the road and dualling it around Salisbury, providing connections to the A30, A36, A338, A354, three railway stations, a hospital, Porton Down, Boscombe Down and the historic towns of Salisbury and Amesbury ... has the potential to boost the South West economy far greater than the investment proposed so far.”

It comes after 21 archaeologists and leading experts on the Stonehenge landscape said the tunnel would have “dreadful consequences” for the World Heritage site.

Highways England said it does not comment on individual consultation responses.