To receive any verbal updates from Partners and Community Groups present, including:
· Police – Neighbourhood Teams
· Fire & Rescue
· Youth - LYN
To note the following written updates attached to the agenda:
a) Police
b) Fire
b) Wiltshire Council Items for Information
c) CCG
d) Healthwatch Wiltshire
Note: Speakers are reminded that they each have a 3 minutes slot, unless they have previously discussed alternative arrangements with the Community Area Manager.
Minutes:
The Board noted the written updates attached to the agenda, and received the following verbal updates from partners present:
Police – Inspector Pete Sparrow
This Area Board has not been organised specifically to talk about the recent events in Amesbury and Salisbury, there are however two public meetings next week where you will have an opportunity to raise concerns and ask questions.
There will be one at Salisbury City Hall next Tuesday (24 July) from 6.30pm, and one next Wednesday (25 July) at The Stonehenge School, Amesbury, from 6.30pm.
Inspector Sparrow then gave a brief update on the position from Wiltshire Police.
We know that our communities here in Amesbury and Salisbury are naturally feeling very anxious and we completely understand these concerns. However, the message from Public Health England continues to be that the risk to the public remains low. This is being continually assessed and if there was any concern then that advice would be updated. At the moment Public Health are advising people that the key message from them is “If you didn’t drop it, don’t pick it up”.
Inspector Sparrow had personally been out and about in Salisbury and Amesbury with staff from Public Health over the past week or so, providing reassurance and answering questions from the public. He had been really impressed by the continued resilience that local people were showing and wanted to say a big thank you for the ongoing support they were giving to Wiltshire Police and other emergency services.
There was a Freephone helpline for advice and information which was staffed by Wiltshire Police and PHE colleagues. This was 0800 0920 410 or 0207 158 0124.
In addition, if you have any information which you believe could help the counter terrorism police investigation, then please call the CT hotline on 0800 789 321.
We know many of you will have questions about specifics relating to the ongoing investigation, however the investigation was being led by Counter Terrorism Police, so we are very limited in what we are able to tell people. CT policing were giving updates as often as they were able regarding the progress of their investigation.
However, Inspector Sparrow was able to share that more than 400 exhibits had been recovered, and more than 100 specialist officers had been deployed on this investigation.
CT police had also recovered a small bottle from the address in Muggleton Road and detectives believed this to be the source of the contamination, substance confirmed as Novichok, of Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess.
Work was ongoing to establish whether the nerve agent was from the same batch as used in the attack against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March, and this of course remains a main line of enquiry for the investigation team.
Searches were still expected to continue for some time yet, as officers look to identify any other potential sites or sources of contamination, as well as gather further evidence to assist with their investigation.
I can reassure you that Wiltshire Police will be doing all it can to assist CT Police, so that we can hopefully get some answers about what exactly happened and who is responsible for this barbaric act.
If you have any concerns or questions for any of the agencies involved, I would encourage you to attend one of the special public meetings next week where there will be representation from all agencies.
Questions and comments included:
The Board noted the written updates attached to the agenda.
Supporting documents: