AN 11th-hour bid is being made to persuade the government to ditch the multi-million-pound scheme to tunnel the A303 at Stonehenge, in favour of a cheaper and less damaging road.

The plea comes from the south Wiltshire group of the Association of Council Taxpayers, which is urging the government to evaluate their ACT Parker Plan more closely.

The group's project officer, John Ellis, said time was running out because, during October, government ministers would "seal the fate of the world-famous sacred site".

Mr Ellis said: "Our inside information suggests they will opt to build either a short cut-and-cover tunnel, gouging a huge, deep trench through the world heritage site and then adding a roof, or a short, bored tunnel.

"Either would result in the construction of a massive four-lane highway and both would damage a site held sacred by millions of people and protected under the World Heritage Convention."

Mr Ellis went on: "Completely sidelined is a carefully researched plan promoted by a local organisation.

"The ACT Parker Plan diverts the A303 south, allowing the roads by the stones to be grubbed up and grassed over but using a stretch of the existing road to give access and provide ample parking for a visitor centre close to, but out-of-sight of, the monument.

"The saving is enormous but it doesn't end there.

"Going south far enough to avoid a protected river valley, it comes close to Salisbury, bringing easy access for tourists and with a simple link road giving the city the bypass it so badly needs.

"In the process, it also brings peace to two other village-strewn valleys acknowledged as needing to be bypassed - the Bourne and Wylye valleys."

The Association is urging the public to write to the government, English Heritage and the National Trust, registering their opposition to both mooted schemes.