WITHOUT a shadow of doubt major works are needed to relieve appalling traffic congestion on the A303 at Stonehenge.

But the tunnel now supported by the coalition government is, and always has been, colossally expensive and unnecessary.

The answer, as most sensible people have suggested for years, is for a flyover at Countess Road roundabout and an ordinary stretch of dual carriageway past the stones, linking in with a bypass for Winterborne Stoke.

Such a scheme is more likely to be delivered and within a much quicker timescale.

The tunnel is purely the vanity project of a handful of archaeologists and that unelected and seemingly unaccountable organisation English Heritage.

Because of the cost, the tunnel scheme will almost certainly be kicked into the long grass again as soon as next year’s general election is over and we'll be kept waiting once more for something to be done.

Few of us are taken in by the promises of that serial breaker of pledges David Cameron. Nor those of his coalition partner Nick Clegg – remember his tuition fees betrayal?

I understand the Prime Minister showed his support for the roads programme by travelling to the area by helicopter for last week's Stonehenge announcement.

Still, with his liking of blatant publicity stunts, we should probably be surprised he didn't make the trip in a reindeer-drawn sleigh.

Tony Vallis Durrington