The legal action brought by Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site (SSWHS) comes not long after the second anniversary of the quashing of the original development consent by the High Court after the group鈥檚 first challenge in 2021.
John Adams, one of the three directors of SSWHS and chair of the Stonehenge Alliance, said:
鈥淭he government appears both blind and deaf to concerns about the damage it will perpetrate on this historic and much-loved landscape. It has ignored concerns raised by Unesco and seems hell bent on bulldozing this scheme through before it gets thrown out of government. We believe we have no choice but to launch a second legal challenge in the face of such belligerence.鈥
SSWHS is represented by law firm Leigh Day. Solicitor Rowan Smith said: 鈥淥ur client is shocked that the government appears not to have learnt from its mistakes and has repeated the decision to grant development consent for the Stonehenge road scheme. Again the decision appears to have been made on an unlawful basis. Our client will argue that the failure to reopen the public examination a second time round was unfair and also a breach of human rights. We hope the Court will grant our client permission for a full hearing.鈥
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