This week’s column comes to you from splendid self-isolation having unwillingly found myself joining the government ‘pingdemic’.

Sadly, there’s no space to moan about being made to stay at home. And similarly, no room either to discuss a new survey that claims the sexiest town in the UK is, er, Andover.

Instead, let’s travel further down the A303 to Stonehenge and the news that campaigners have successfully challenged the decision to bury the road in a tunnel underneath the ancient landscape.

The High Court challenge centred on the decision of Grant Shapps to press ahead with the scheme, despite the exhaustive Planning Inspectorate report recommending the opposite.

More Stonehenge tunnel news:

Mr Justice Holgate’s ruling, to borrow from the band Blackstreet, can be summed up in two words: No diggity.

The Department of Transport offered one of those ‘disappointed’ and ‘considering options’ responses.

Salisbury MP John Glen was more forthcoming on a Twitter thread, describing the ‘shock’ of local residents at the ruling. Though elsewhere, the local response seemed at odds with this.

‘I was delighted’, claimed Winterbourne Stoke resident Ian West, for example.

Glen went on to describe the tunnel solution as ‘the best option for preserving the unique landscape of the World Heritage site’ and one that had ‘been arrived at after years of careful examination of all options’.

However, these are precisely the two reasons Holgate gave for his ruling: that Shapps had not properly assessed the harm to each heritage asset within the World Heritage Site; and that Shapps had not considered other options, including that of a lengthier tunnel avoiding the Stonehenge landscape altogether.

In fact, this might just be the week when the tide has turned against the British motorist.

It was also announced that the Highway Code is to be revised to include a new ‘road user hierarchy’, giving pedestrians and cyclists priority.

This was backed up by Gear Change, a new government report backing up the benefits of ‘active travel’.

I know many people think that cycling and walking schemes simply increase car traffic on other roads.

We sometimes think of traffic as like water, if you block a stream in one place, it will find the next easiest way.

Traffic is not a force of nature. It is a product of people’s choices. If you make it easier to and safer to walk and cycle, more people choose to walk and cycle instead of driving, and the traffic falls overall.

Before you start writing in, I should point out that last paragraph is from Boris Johnson’s foreword to the report.

I don’t say it often, but on this occasion, the Prime Minister has got it right.

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