I HAVE just read your article concerning the Stonehenge tunnel (Journal, October 16).

A long time ago I suggested to our previous MP that, rather than building a costly tunnel, the A303 should just be put in a cutting.

This would be much cheaper, the road could be modified if necessary in the future and the danger of an accident and resultant fire in a tunnel would be avoided.

His reply, and also that of our present MP, was that this would be impossible as it is a World Heritage Site, meaning that a cutting could not be excavated. However, a tunnel could be dug without disturbing the surface layers.

If this is true, then I fail to see how a tunnel could result in significant harm being done to the site, as claimed by the Stonehenge Alliance.

On another matter, in June 2011 I attended the inquiry into the road closures associated with the Stonehenge Visitor Centre.

The report to the Secretary of State for Transport states that providing a safe crossing of the A303 at Stonehenge Bottom is a prerequisite of opening the visitor centre, and this is acknowledged within the planning permission.

Apparently, Condition 27 states that it must be completed before the visitor centre is occupied.

Many months since the opening of the centre and one fatal accident later there is still no sign of a safe crossing. Why?

I have asked the Secretary of State and had no reply, and I have asked Wiltshire Council and they are looking into it, but it might take some time.

In the meantime, it would appear that the visitor centre's opening is in breach of planning permission.

Richard C Tambling

Elm Grove Road

Salisbury