CONTROVERSIAL plans to create a tunnel on the A303 near one of Wiltshire’s most prominent landmarks could be scrapped.

This comes as the government wants to formally remove planning permission for the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down scheme, which would have seen eight miles of dual carriageway created alongside a tunnel.

This means if the permission was removed, the planning process would go back to square one should the plans be revived in the future.

The plans, which aimed to alleviate traffic around Stonehenge, were given the go-ahead in July 2023.

But they were put on ice last year as the government said it agreed “not to move forward with projects that the previous government refused to publicly cancel despite knowing full well they were unaffordable”.

At that point, £160 million had been spent on the project, and estimates had the overall cost of the project at around £2 billion.

The notice from the Department for Transport, said “exceptional circumstances” make it “appropriate” to make a proposal to revoke planning permission.

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The news will come as a relief to campaigners who opposed the A303 scheme since the very start.

But National Highways backed the plans, stating it would tackle one of the UK’s most notorious traffic bottlenecks.

When news of the withdrawing of the funding hit the headlines, the then leader of Wiltshire Council, councillor Richard Clewer, said the council was “extremely dismayed and disappointed”.

“These improvements are needed now to ease traffic congestion on the A303 and reduce traffic in our communities, and also ensure economic growth in Wiltshire, unlocking jobs and investment in the wider south-west region,” he said.

“It has taken many years of lobbying and working closely with partners, including National Highways, to bring this major infrastructure project to Wiltshire, and so it is a huge blow to get to the stage when construction is ready to begin, only to have this taken away from us at this late hour.”

People are being urged to have their say over the proposed order, which can be found here, until the deadline of November 21.