THIS week’s announcement of the preferred route for the A303 upgrade near Stonehenge has kept me busy, with several media engagements to fulfil on top of my usual ministerial duties.

The announcement shows that the project remains on track to alleviate traffic problems and rat-running in nearby villages and slash journey times to the West Country.

The announcement by Highways England is an important step forward. It is right that extensive consultation has already taken place to narrow down the options to what is now known to be the preferred solution – a twin-bore tunnel and a bypass north of Winterbourne Stoke.

I’m pleased the project team has taken on board feedback from archaeologists and local people, as well as English Heritage and the National Trust, which both strongly supported a tunnel.

This has been a controversial process – it would have been impossible to reconcile the views of everyone and still deliver a viable solution that is in the best interests of the World Heritage site.

We need to remember that this is a project of national significance, which is not being funded from local transport budgets but is receiving extra money allocated specifically for improving strategic roads – main arteries linking one region to another.

Improving Salisbury’s local infrastructure is a completely separate issue and one which I remain fully committed to.

There now begins a process over the next year of detailed consultation leading up to the formal planning process. I will be doing my utmost to ensure that the remaining concerns are fully addressed and the needs of local people taken into account.

On Friday, my constituency diary includes meeting local people to discuss the implications of the A303 announcement and their views on the preferred route.

I will also be holding a full advice surgery, visiting a major local employer and dropping in on the local history exhibition in Idmiston Church.