Cllr Pauline Church: Supporting Amesbury and Salisbury businesses: Six months on...

The Maltings

Can you believe it’s been six months since our city was thrust into the international spotlight in a way that none of us could ever have imagined.
Following the dreadful attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal we began the long process to get Salisbury back to normal and we were making good progress when the second incident occurred that also impacted on Amesbury.
Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess fell seriously ill after finding a bottle that we now know contained a nerve agent. They had visited several places in Amesbury and Salisbury and tragically Dawn died on 8th July.
This week marks six months since the 4th March incident and a period when two communities have had to deal with so much. It’s time now to take a breath and reflect.
The fabulous Lift Off! festival over the bank holiday weekend was a great example of that attitude. As part of this festival I attended an amazing opera in St Thomas’s Church call PUSH, the story of Simon Gronowski. As a young boy his life was saved by his mother pushing him off a train bound for Auschwitz. The moving performance of 120 local singers coming together fuelled with emotion and the three words “I forgive you”, sung to the Auschwitz guard in the most sweetest way by baritone James Newby, gave us all a heartening assertion of the goodness of the human spirit and its will to survive.
It’s clear to me how determined and focused we are on reclaiming our city, our town and our communities. Life will never be quite the same, as we won’t forget, but six-months on its time for us to look forward.
Every cordon that comes down, every place, area, facility that’s handed back and re-opens is a positive step forwards. Last week’s opening of Lizzie Gardens was a real boost. Now we’ve been told The Mill will be open again for business by Christmas and Zizzi’s will be handed back shortly. All this is getting us back to normal life.
Over the bank holiday the city was packed with more than 13,000 people enjoying dance, music, theatre and crafts. It was a weekend filled with colour, vibrancy, fun, happiness and it sent the strong message that Salisbury’s confidence is returning. It was a true celebration of this creative, beautiful city showing the world that we don’t intend to just survive, but to flourish.