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Stonehenge

I congratulate the hon. Member for Salisbury (Robert Key) on securing this important debate. He says that he will be at Stonehenge on Saturday. I hope that he will excuse me for not joining him, as it is my birthday; nevertheless, I wish him all the best. I have particularly fond memories of Stonehenge. My family regularly visited the site on our way to the south coast for our summer holidays. The management of the stones has changed somewhat over the years. We used to have access to them—we could sit on them and wander around them. I have a photograph in my family album of me in a hideous 1970s T-shirt sitting one of the stones, with my grandfather sitting next to me smoking a Woodbine. I still like to visit Stonehenge, but the Woodbines did for granddad. I am fond of the site and I try to visit it whenever I pass by, as it brings back important family memories. I am chairman of the all-party group on world heritage sites. It is, I believe, one of the most successful groups in Parliament, with a large attendance. The Minister is to visit the group early in the new year, and I am sure that she will be asked a number of questions about Stonehenge and the management of the site. I speak today largely because the subject is an all-party one and it is important to our nation that we get it right. Stonehenge is one of the United Kingdom's most significant sites. Clearly, all world heritage sites are important, but Stonehenge is recognised across the world as being of extreme significance. The hon. Member for Salisbury said that Stonehenge sits in a landscape. World heritage sites are now considered as part of a wider landscape. For the older sites, it was an iconic feature within the landscape that was designated, but UNESCO and all involved in world heritage now take the view that one has to place sites such as Stonehenge within the landscape setting. That is why this debate is so important. The management of traffic around the site is of major importance, but is not working effectively. Someone driving past Stonehenge will see a lot of people trying to glimpse the stones as they pass by. I do not know how many accidents are caused as a result, but clearly the framework for traffic management is not right. Sadly, we have been having this debate since 1995, and the reports published are stacking up. The hon. Gentleman was right to raise, on behalf of his constituents, the issue of vehicle management, but this is important to the whole nation, so we need to get it right. As he mentioned, a number of other world heritage sites are also under threat. There is a significant debate about the Tower of London, about the world heritage site in which we sit today, and about the impact of tall buildings. UNESCO will wish to take a view on the continuing volume of traffic passing Stonehenge and how it impacts on the way in which people can look at, study and enjoy the wider landscape. The site is of world significance, but the visitors' centre is not up to scratch. In fact, it is the same one that I visited while wearing that pretty horrible 1970s T-shirt. The centre has not stood the test of time. It might function, but one would imagine that such an important feature of the landscape would require a visitors' centre that does it credit with, for example, a multi-media presentation of the site and attempts to promote an understanding of the wider landscape. I hope that we will get a commitment from the Minister to major steps forward in traffic management and a visitors' centre. It is particularly important that we make progress before 2012. The all-party world heritage sites group wants to pursue the concept of ““world heritage, world games””, so that people visiting the UK for the Olympic games will be encouraged to visit world heritage sites—not just Stonehenge, but other sites such as Ironbridge gorge, in my constituency. We want people to visit not just London, but all our major world heritage sites. There could be a fantastic link between the world games and world heritage sites. It is crucial, however, that Stonehenge has a better-quality visitors' centre. Many people will want to visit Stonehenge when they come to the London Olympics, because in their home countries they have seen incredible images of that feature of our landscape. However, it is important to focus on the management plans and on delivering them. Plans for all world heritage sites take considerable time to develop, and the organisations involved in putting them together are very proud of them—they are of the plan for Ironbridge gorge, and I am sure that they are of the Stonehenge one as well. We must hold faith with the organisations, and the Government, who have contributed to the development of those plans. They should be seen as the main structure for future delivery on traffic and visitor plans around Stonehenge and the surrounding landscape. In conclusion, I again congratulate the hon. Member for Salisbury. I stress to the Minister that this matter is important to all parties in the House and all people in this nation.