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
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