Hello,
Last week saw a significant milestone achieved in the recovery of Salisbury. The walkway and shops in the Maltings shopping centre, reopened to the public over the Bank Holiday weekend and people can now access the city centre from Central Car Park through the Maltings, and support the shops and businesses that have started to reopen.
The site has been thoroughly cleaned following the incident almost three months ago, to ensure that any traces of nerve agent found have been removed by specialists. Working with Salisbury City Council and the Maltings Shopping Centre team we pulled out all the stops to make improvements to this site including brickwork repair, grass cutting, painting and routine maintenance so that it could reopen for the holiday weekend.
It has always been a priority to reopen this main economic thoroughfare, which takes visitors and shoppers from the main car parks to the city centre past the shops in the Maltings that have been directly affected. We hope that people will now visit and support the businesses that were affected and their patience and stoicism during the investigation and clean-up work has to be commended. This reopening reflects the hard work of all the local and national partner agencies who cleaned the site to enable it to reopen and is a big step forward in getting Salisbury back to normal.
On another milestone – but this time a personal one - I am a firm advocate for new challenges and for pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.
Last week I did just that and completed my first ever wing walk in aid of Hope for Tomorrow!
I’ll admit to being a little nervous beforehand – and, who wouldn’t be? – But I have to say being strapped to the wings of a plane and 1,000 feet in the air was the most exhilarating experience - and one I would love to do again and would recommend to anyone given the opportunity.
I’m told that more people have climbed Everest than done a wing walk - so I am delighted with my achievement. My thanks go to all of you who pledged support – if you would still like to do so, my fund-raising page can be found online.
So far my five friends and I from the Wings of Hope fundraising team raised more than £16,000, and there is still money coming in.
Hope for Tomorrow is a charity I have supported for many years, and I was pleased to be able to give back a little to an organisation that gives so much to others and to do something new and challenging and feel that sense of achievement.
There are a few pictures here, and you can also watch a short video.
Jane
I’m pleased to say that slowly but surely Salisbury is starting to recover. The clean-up of the nine sites potentially affected is well underway and it never ceases to amaze me how flexible and accommodating that people are when faced with the most challenging circumstance. Wiltshire Police and council staff based at Bourne Hill relocated to vacate the new extension almost two weeks ago and the impact to service users was seamless. This was due to the positive attitude and flexible approach adopted by all concerned and I would like to say thank you. The demonstrable resilience is a credit to all of you and to both organisations. In the circumstances we had to displace some wedding parties and the patience shown by these parties reflected their understanding of what Salisbury has faced and the need to make sacrifices for the greater good and recovery of the city.
This month – and it’s now May – is a month of events and celebrations – and in my view we all need a little of that right now!
Salisbury Live, which starts this Friday (4 May) and runs until 1 June, is a city-wide celebration of live music and offers five weekends of free live gigs in venues across Salisbury – in total there are more than 100 different acts in 20 venues. From pop,rock and blues to jam nights, there’s something to suit all tastes; download the full programme.
The Royal Wedding on 19 May, will see the grounds of Salisbury Cathedral turn red, white and blue as a free, fun-filled party to celebrate the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The event, starts at 9am and is packed with activities and live entertainment for the whole family to enjoy including a chance to write good luck messages to the Royal couple, and children’s craft sessions with Salisbury Cathedral and CBBC. And, of course, the ceremony will be broadcast live on a 50-foot screen.
Throughout May and June, the Cathedral is also hosting a major art installation, Les Colombes by multimedia artist Michael Pendry, which carries a message of resilience, peace and hope. The installation features a flock of around 2,500 white origami doves that ‘fly’ the length of the Cathedral nave – definitely worth a visit.
And on 31 May as part of the recovery programme, Salisbury will host cycling’s Grand Final of the OVO Energy Tour Series. Working with Salisbury City Council we are supporting Britain’s leading televised cycle race series which will take place in Wiltshire for the first time, and will showcase Salisbury. This is a free-to-attend event and the race action from the 1.2k Salisbury City Centre circuit will be shown in two hour-long highlight programmes on ITV4 in the UK, as well as in over 100 countries worldwide. Previous competitors include four-time Olympic champion Laura Kenny CBE, Ed Clancy OBE (three-time Olympic champion) and Dame Sarah Storey, Britain’s most successful female Paralympian. I know a call out has been made to encourage volunteers to get involved and to help to marshal the event and I hope you will get involved as this is a real one-off event for Wiltshire and will be a really exciting evening with the races starting in the Market Place at 6pm.
And finally, can you believe that on Monday 21 May, along with five friends from my Wings of Hope fundraising team, I will be taking off from Rendcome Airfield in Gloucestershire on the top wing of a bi-plane to swoop over the Cotswolds at speeds topping 130mph to raise money for Hope for Tomorrow, a charity I have supported for many years. Hope for Tomorrow does an excellent job helping to provide cancer care closer to patients’ homes in mobile cancer units across the country rather than in a hospital and this makes a real difference to people’s lives at a time when they really need it. This Wing Walk experience will be a slightly daunting experience for me and something totally different that I never thought I would do – but, it will be well worth it if it helps to raise funding to support this great cause. If any of you would like to support me in raising as much money as possible for Hope for Tomorrow please pledge your support.
Pictures to follow!
Enjoy May and celebrate a little…
Hope for Tomorrow is a charity I have supported for many years, and I was pleased to be able to give back a little to an organisation that gives so much to others and to do something new and challenging and feel that sense of achievement.
There are a few pictures here, and you can also watch a short video.