Wednesday 31 October 2018

I’ll be getting my skates on!

There’s something about an ice rink that just shouts winter wonderland. Maybe it’s the festive films which always seem to feature a scene on an ice rink or romantic images of skaters on Christmas cards. Whatever it is, an ice rink adds that extra magic at Christmas.

It’s so exciting Salisbury is hosting its first ice rink in the Guildhall Square as part of the popular Christmas market and it will be under cover so everyone can enjoy all weather skating through the festive season. It officially opens on 29 November and will stay open until 6 January 2019. It’s going to be popular so, if you don’t want to miss out, get online and book your visit and if you’re quick there are early bird offers. Two adults and two children can skate for just £15, saving £5. 
There’s also individual special offer tickets at £6 for an adult and £5 for a child. The special discounted offer goes live soon, visit www.salisburychristmasmarket.co.uk to book.

The Christmas website will show updated events and activities on offer including what’s happening at the rink – I’m looking forward to special theme nights with leg warmers and an 80s DJ and a Christmas jumper night – you can also make group and school bookings and private events.

Christmas will mark the end of a tough year in Salisbury and Amesbury – this is just what we need, a magical winter wonderland that restores warmth and confidence and shows the world we’ve moved on.

Wednesday 24 October 2018

Looking forward to Christmas…


As the clocks go back and the colder weather approaches, I don’t know about you but I start to think about Christmas.
The build up to the festive season is always an exciting and vital time for retailers and traders and for all of us that live, work and shop in Salisbury and Amesbury.

We recognise that visitors and shoppers need to be enticed to provide a much needed boost to both towns.
Plans are well under way to provide a wonderful experience focused around the now well established Christmas Market in Salisbury.
This year the plans include the addition of an ice rink, live entertainment, a nutcracker trail and the annual lantern parade.
The ice rink, a new and exciting venture, will be available for private parties, school trip outings, special early bird family offers, and of course turn up and skate.

Promotion of the Christmas activities, including the offer of free parking from 3pm every day and free park and ride Monday-Saturday until Christmas Eve, will start soon and I’m sure will encourage visitors and shoppers to choose our Christmas activities and events.
Plus we know that the economic recovery in Amesbury and Salisbury will take time and commitment and I would please urge any business that needs continued support to call 01225 402096.

We need that positive build up to Christmas and I warmly welcome your ideas and views on what more we can all do to rebuild confidence and re-boost our wonderful town and city and bring back the visitors and shoppers that are so vital to the economic recovery.

Tuesday 16 October 2018

At last normality is becoming the norm!


After the most extraordinary year Salisbury and Amesbury are at last getting back to business as usual.
Last week Boots in Amesbury was handed back following testing and cleaning by specialist teams. 
This is welcome news for local people as we know that this store is a popular local facility, and it will reopen soon following some maintenance work.

Only two sites; the Sergei Skripal’s house and Charlie Rowley’s flat are still undergoing cleaning by the specialist teams.
All the other affected sites are now either back in use, or will be very soon.
All I can say is thank goodness - after a challenging few months we can at last focus on the future and how we will rebuild confidence in Salisbury and Amesbury.

Jeremy Wright, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport visits Salisbury
The ongoing support of government ministers will help us to rebuild this confidence.
Jeremy Wright, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport visited last week and gave his commitment to support the recovery programme; particularly the redevelopment of the Maltings and the creation of a new cultural quarter that will bring together the arts, theatre, entertainment and heritage as an exciting new attraction for visitors.
This year has seen several ministerial visits and all have pledged their support.
This can only be a good thing for Salisbury and Amesbury as we know that it will take time, funding and effort to make our city and town better than they were before the incidents of March and June.

How Salisbury is seen in the future is something we can all get involved in and have our say.
All of us that live, work, study or visit the city are invited by Visit Wiltshire to share our views on what would make Salisbury even better and help to promote it to visitors and tourists across the globe.
The survey is available here. I have my views and have already completed the survey.
Please get involved. It’s vital that we look to the future and we do all we can to attract and encourage visitors to our beautiful city that has so much to offer and, with the redevelopment plans, will have even more!

Wednesday 10 October 2018

Bourne Hill update

Seeing the reception at Bourne Hill busy with customers is usually nothing out of the ordinary – its people going about their business, coming in with their queries and issues and speaking to our council staff and Wiltshire Police colleagues.

But, after seven months of the building being closed, the main reception in the ‘new’ extension re-opened to the public this week. That regular, nothing out of the ordinary sight was very welcome illustrating that we’re getting back to normal business.

It’s a credit to council staff and Wiltshire Police that customer services were maintained seamlessly while part of Bourne Hill was closed. Our customer services operated from the register office in the old building and the police were based at the library and Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre. 

Getting back to normal is what we all want to see as we know the number of people coming to the city and the town dropped, particularly after the second incident and the latest figures put footfall at 12.5% lower than this time last year. 

Encouraging people to visit both Salisbury and Amesbury needs new and different offers. Next week’s Salisbury Literary Festival (17 – 22 October) is a vibrant festival packed with events, workshops and activities across the city including the cathedral; library; Playhouse; Sarum College; Fisherton Mill and the Guildhall. This year’s headliners are best-selling crime writer Val McDermid; Matt Haig and Jonathan Coe. A feature of the festival is the Salisbury Greats talk which focuses on a renowned writer with a link to Salisbury. This year it’s focusing on crime writer Dorothy L Sayers who went to school in the city and I’m sure will be both interesting and popular. Events like the literary festival are helping to bring visitors, shoppers and local people back into the city and to Amesbury. I hope you’ll enjoy the festival and show your continued support to the city.

Tuesday 2 October 2018

Salisbury Food and Drink Festival


It was so good to see so many people in the city centre for the food and drink festival on Sunday. If ever there was an illustration that Salisbury is getting back to normal, it was seeing hundreds of people enjoying this vibrant, lively event on a beautiful autumnal day.
It was heartening to see so many locals, visitors and tourists visit the Guildhall and Market Place to see chefs Paul Dankin, Levi Roots and BBC Masterchef’s 2016 winner Jane Devonshire. The Market Place was filled with stalls and there was a positive and friendly atmosphere as people enjoyed themselves. 

On the theme of food; last week Salisbury also welcomed three leading food bloggers from New York who have 176,000 Instagram followers between them. Their visit was organised by the government’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and GREAT as part of a foodie tour of the country stopping at our beautiful city. Bloggers @gilliehouston, @girleastsnyc and @mslindsays were given a foodie tour of the city and also visited the cathedral. They’ve been posting from their visit, helping to spread those much needed positive images of Salisbury across the globe via this powerful social media channel. Let’s hope this helps to rebuild confidence in Salisbury as a place to visit and enjoy.

As we look forward to this year’s Christmas season, which traditionally has always a busy time in Salisbury, we recognise that local businesses and traders continue to need a boost. Wiltshire Council has agreed to provide free parking after three in all the council’s car parks in both Salisbury and Amesbury and at the five park and ride sites all day Monday to Saturday from 1 October until Christmas Eve. This Christmas we need to encourage and attract visitors and shoppers and to boost the city’s popular Christmas market there will be the added attraction of an ice rink in the Market Place, creating a winter wonderland of seasonal festivities, which I can’t wait to see. See you on the ice!


With Best Wishes
Pauline


Photo credit: Salisbury food and drink festival pictures courtesy of Salisbury City Council.