Planning Supporting Statement and Statement of Community Consultation
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Stonehenge Visitor Facilities and Access Scheme Planning Supporting Statement and Statement of Community Consultation August 2004 ENGLISH HERITAGE Stonehenge Visitor Facilities and Access Scheme Planning Supporting Statement August 2004 ENGLISH HERITAGE English Heritage STONEHENGE VISITOR FACILITIES AND ACCESS SCHEME Planning Supporting Statement August 2004 Approved by: D Watkins Signed: ……………………………... Position: Associate Technical Director Date: 18 August 2004 CHRIS BLANDFORD ASSOCIATES Environment Landscape Planning - 1 - STONEHENGE VISITOR FACILITIES AND ACCESS SCHEME PLANNING SUPPORTING STATEMENT __________________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION 2.0 THE NEED FOR THE SCHEME 3.0 THE PROPOSALS 4.0 PLANNING POLICY COMPLIANCE FIGURES 1. Illustrated Plan of the New Visitor Centre and Access Scheme 11083101_Planning Statement_18-08-04.doc - 2 - STONEHENGE VISITOR FACILITIES AND ACCESS SCHEME PLANNING SUPPORTING STATEMENT __________________________________________________________________________________ 1.0 INTRODUCTION The Scheme 1.1 English Heritage is applying to Salisbury District Council for planning permission to undertake the following works that together comprise the Stonehenge Visitor Facilities and Access Scheme: x Construction of a New Visitor Centre with parking facilities located outside the World Heritage Site (WHS) east of Countess Road (A345), north of Amesbury; x Construction of a track to provide dispersed access by Land Trains from the New Visitor Centre to archaeological sites and monuments within the WHS; x Decommissioning and removal of the existing visitor facilities and car park at the Stonehenge monument, and their replacement with an operations facility concealed underground; x Decommissioning of the A344 between its junction with the A360 at Airman’s Corner and the entrance to the existing car park at the Stonehenge monument, and works to re-model the A344 road bed between Fargo Plantation and the existing car park; The Scheme is illustrated on Figure 1. The Planning Application Area 1.2 The Planning Application Area within the redline encompasses approximately 396, 782m2 (c.39.7ha), of which approximately 244,159m2 (c.24.4ha) relates to the New Visitor Centre site comprising agricultural land. English Heritage owns the freehold of the site, including residential properties along Countess Road (Numbers 14, 16, 18 and 48a). 1.3 The majority of the agricultural land over which the 3.7km Land Train route corridor crosses is owned by The National Trust as part of the Trust’s Stonehenge Estate, with the exception of Ministry of Defence land in the Durrington Farm area. 1.4 The existing English Heritage operated visitor facilities at Stonehenge are situated on land leased from The National Trust. The Stonehenge monument and a 30 hectare triangle of land surrounding it is managed by English Heritage, and largely owned by the Department for 11083101_Planning Statement_18-08-04.doc (partially) LAND TRAIN TRANSIT SYSTEM VISITOR CENTRE DECOMMISSIONING OF EXISTING PARTIAL FACILITIES RESTORATION OF THE A344 STONEHENGE FIGURE 1 Illustrative Plan of the New Visitor Centre and Access Scheme NEW VISITOR CENTRE AND ACCESS TO THE STONEHENGE WORLD HERITAGE SITE LANDSCAPE - 3 - STONEHENGE VISITOR FACILITIES AND ACCESS SCHEME PLANNING SUPPORTING STATEMENT __________________________________________________________________________________ Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) with a small strip of land adjacent to Byway 12 owned by The National Trust. 1.5 Land immediately to the north and south of the A344 corridor between Airman’s Corner and Byway 12 is owned by two private land owners and The National Trust. The Planning Application 1.6 This Planning Supporting Statement is provided in support of English Heritage’s planning application for the Scheme. The Statement sets out the planning policy context, confirming that the application complies with all relevant development plan policies and supplementary planning guidance, as well as with current national planning policy. 1.7 The planning application is supported by a number of documents to be taken into consideration by the local planning authority; these describe the Scheme and provide assessments of how planning, environmental, transport and design issues associated with the proposals have been addressed. The following documents comprise the planning application: x Planning Application Area Plan (the ‘redline’ plan) x Planning Supporting Statement (this document) x Environmental Statement x Transport Assessment x Travel Plan x Design Statement x Planning Application Drawings 1.8 The application is also supported by the following document: x Statement of Community Consultation 11083101_Planning Statement_18-08-04.doc - 4 - STONEHENGE VISITOR FACILITIES AND ACCESS SCHEME PLANNING SUPPORTING STATEMENT __________________________________________________________________________________ 2.0 THE NEED FOR THE SCHEME 2.1 Stonehenge is one of the most important and most frequently visited monuments in Britain. It is also an international icon, and attracts visitors from all over the world. The outstanding universal value of the megalithic Stonehenge monument is recognised by its inscription, together with Avebury, onto the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1986 as the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites WHS. A number of associated sites close to Stonehenge are included in the Stonehenge WHS – such as the Cursus, Woodhenge and Durrington Walls. 2.2 Despite the international importance and visitor appeal of Stonehenge, the inadequacy of the visitor facilities and poor presentation of the site have been a concern for a long time. It is widely acknowledged that the existing refreshment, interpretative and parking facilities at Stonehenge are poorly designed, insensitively located and inadequate for a WHS. In 1993, the National Audit Office described the existing visitor facilities at Stonehenge as: ‘cramped, outdated and too small to deal with the 800,000 who visit the site each year’. These sentiments were echoed by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) UK in their 1995 The English World Heritage Sites Monitoring Reports, who added their concerns about the damage and disturbance to the setting of Stonehenge caused by the A303. In 1993, the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons described the presentation of the Site as a ‘national disgrace’. 2.3 Presently, the majority of visitors focus their visit or attention on Stonehenge. First impressions of the WHS as a whole are poor due to the visual intrusion of the car park and related facilities, and traffic on the A344 and A303 roads which pass close to the Stonehenge monument, severing it from the surrounding landscape. Public awareness of access opportunities provided by The National Trust to the other archaeological sites and the wider landscape of the WHS is restricted by the current agricultural land use arrangements and limited signage. Only a relatively small number of visitors currently experience views of the Stonehenge monument in its wider landscape setting, which precludes understanding of the complex relationship between Stonehenge and the surrounding monuments. 2.4 The Stonehenge WHS Management Plan published in 2000 seeks to address these concerns by setting out a policy framework for the long-term management of the WHS. 11083101_Planning Statement_18-08-04.doc - 5 - STONEHENGE VISITOR FACILITIES AND ACCESS SCHEME PLANNING SUPPORTING STATEMENT __________________________________________________________________________________ The key aim of the Management Plan is to help ensure the preservation of Stonehenge and its associated historic environment for future generations. It includes objectives for improving visitor provision and enhancing the presentation of the site. These and other objectives will be realised through specific projects, the most important of which is The Stonehenge Project. Formerly known as the Stonehenge Master Plan, The Stonehenge Project has three major components: (i) The English Heritage Stonehenge Visitor Facilities and Access Scheme, which is the subject of this Planning Application; (ii) The National Trust Stonehenge Estate Land Use Plan published in 2001 in support of the Stonehenge WHS Management Plan objectives, which describes detailed proposals for extended grassland around Stonehenge; (iii) The Highways Agency A303 Stonehenge Improvement Scheme which includes placement of the A303 in a tunnel through the central area of the WHS, the decommissioning and restoration of the A344 between the A303 and the existing car park at the Stonehenge monument, and provision of a flyover at Countess Roundabout. The Scheme also includes a by-pass for Winterbourne Stoke, west of the WHS. 2.5 The DCMS, English Heritage, The National Trust, the Department for Transport and the Highways Agency, confirmed their commitment to The Stonehenge Project in 1999 by issuing the following joint mission statement with Salisbury District Council and Wiltshire County Council: ‘To restore the dignity and isolation of Britain’s greatest prehistoric monument, and enable people to enjoy and appreciate it fully by: x Removing the visual impact and noise of roads and traffic from the vicinity of the Stones; x Reuniting Stonehenge and its surrounding monuments in their natural chalk downland landscape setting; x Creating the conditions for improved biodiversity with flowers, butterflies, birds and insects flourishing; x Providing improved access,