THE planned new visitor centre at Stonehenge could open its doors by 2013 if funding can be found.

It was announced in June that the coalition Government will no longer be stumping up the £10million promised by the former Labour administration towards the cost of the £27million centre.

Despite this setback, English Heritage vowed to push on with the proposed new centre at Airman’s Corner, which already has planning permission granted.

At Amesbury Area Board on Thursday, English Heritage project development manager Martin Harvey updated councillors and members of the public on progress made since the announcement.

“We believe the project remains absolutely achievable,” he said. “If all goes well with the remainder of this year, we believe we can still start work on the site in 2012 and open for business the following year.”

He said English Heritage have put in an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund, and is completing current plans in the meantime using money from previous sources.

Applications to close the A344 are still going through and a revised business case for the project is due to be submitted at the end of the year.