To receive an update from Cllr Pauline Church, Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Salisbury Recovery, on the Amesbury and Salisbury Recovery, following the recent major incident.
Minutes:
Cllr Pauline Church, Cabinet Member for Economic Development and South Wiltshire Recovery, gave an update on the recovery in Amesbury and Salisbury.
78 businesses had been contacted by Wiltshire Council in Amesbury and £12,500 had been granted, to date, to financially support Amesbury businesses severely impacted by the incidents. £15,000 had been allocated to help Amesbury deliver the new History Centre. There had also been an agreement to top up the budget to regenerate the central car park toilet facilities.
Free parking from 3pm every day continued in Salisbury and Amesbury and free parking on Sundays had been introduced.
To date approximately £5.3 million had been spent on the recovery. This was made up of £1,550,004 from Wiltshire Council reserves, £3,285,487 awarded to Wiltshire Council from central government and £500,000 awarded to Visit Wiltshire from central government. These figures were then broken down further to detail how the funds were spent, this covered response and recovery, business support and profile and promotion.
South Wiltshire was moving forward, with Boots in Amesbury being reopened, and Zizzi in Salisbury reopening. Salisbury Christmas light switch on had taken place on 15 November 2018. The Salisbury Christmas Market and Ice Rink would be open from 29 November 2018 until 6 January 2019. The Amesbury Christmas Market was due to take place on 5 December 2018. Armed Forces Weekend 2019 had been launched and was being promoted. The event would be taking place in Salisbury from 28 – 30 June 2019. The OVO Energy Cycle Tour series would be returning in May 2019.
Long term economic recovery plans included; transport improvements; developing Amesbury History Centre; the future Boscombe Down programme; a campaign to encourage tourism and increase number visitors with Visit England; the re-development of Salisbury college campus and the Royal Artillery Museum Archive at Larkhill.
A governance structure had been developed to deal with the recovery, involving the South Wiltshire Task Force (Strategic), which included Government, Wiltshire Council members and officers, Salisbury City Council, Amesbury Town Council, CLoG, the LEP, Visit Wiltshire, Salisbury Cathedral and strategic business partners. The Task Force would interact with the South Wiltshire Operation Board and various recovery cells, which were divided into pillars to provide delivery and work streams. These would include economy, health & wellbeing, communications, tourism and culture.
In response to questions from the audience and board, Cllr Church stated that there were temporary notices up in car parks detailing the free parking after 3pm arrangements. Cllr Church would investigate the possibility of getting a large sign to be displayed in Amesbury with the details (similar to the ones on the way into Salisbury) and would also investigate the removal of the free 30 minute parking in Central Car park in Amesbury. In response to a question from a representative of the Amesbury History Centre, Cllr Church stated that her office would liaise with Amesbury Town Council and the History Centre to move plans forward for the History Centre. Cllr Church also detailed who sat on the South Wiltshire Task Force and stated that whilst it was unlikely the History Centre would be able to sit on the Task Force, it may be possible to involve them elsewhere, for example in one of the pillars, such as Tourism or Culture.
The Chairman thanked Cllr Church for the update.