FACILITIES at Stonehenge have come under fire from Britain’s tourism minister.

Margaret Hodge made the comments in Which? Holiday magazine.

She criticised hotels across the country saying they are of “worrying” quality and she said in particular the facilities at Stonehenge were not befitting of a World Heritage Site.

And she described the rush hour traffic on the London Underground as “dreadful”.

Hoteliers said the minister’s comments did not reflect the hard work and investment being made by the industry to improve standards.

Ms Hodge told the magazine: “I agree that hotels are expensive and I worry about the quality – only half of UK accommodation is kite-marked and has the quality motif (the star rating set up by the VisitBritain organisation and the AA).”

She said the Department of Culture, Media and Sport was making efforts to improve facilities at Stonehenge, which is the subject of a long-running wrangle about how best to develop the site for visitors.

Last December the Tories warned Stonehenge could lose its status as a World Heritage Site if the problem of what to do about the busy A303, which runs parallel to the site, were not solved.

The comments come as a public consultation on the future of the site continues and a man who has legally changed his name to King Arthur keeps up his one man fight for an improvement to visitor facilities at the site.

English Heritage wants to know what people across Wiltshire want to see happen at the protected site – plans floated at the moment include the closure of the A344, which runs just metres from the stones.

A report shaped by public comments on the proposals will go to Government by November and a reply will be published by the end of the year.