Visitor centre agreed at Stonehenge

The site of Stonehenge‘s visitor centre has been announced.  The original plans have been somewhat scaled down buy the government plans to have the site built in time to coincide with the Olympics in 2012.  The visitor centre will be built at Airman’s Corner just a mile and a half west of the prehistoric monuments.  The announcement comes after many decades of disagreement, with one archaeologist commenting on the prospect of the visitor centre as “crazy and incomprehensible, archaeologically, educationally and economically” and by another as “probably sensible but inevitable rather dull”.  The culture secretary calls the plans “sustainable and affordable”.  Barbara Follett, the culture minister, described Stonehenge as “absolutely at the heart of our national history and heritage”, but added: “Everyone agrees, however, that the way it is presented to visitors is far short of ideal. Consensus on how to improve visitor facilities has eluded stakeholders for far too long, and so I am delighted that we now have plans to move forward.”  The manager of the monument, Barry Cunliffe also welcomes the proposals.