The Vision for Salisbury - FAQ

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Salisbury is a great place, why do we need a vision?

There is no doubt that Salisbury provides a social and physical environment and a quality of life that is much envied and sought after.

Built around the meeting place of five rivers, Salisbury is a beautiful medieval city set amongst outstanding countryside. Salisbury has an unemployment rate that is amongst the lowest in the country and it is popular as a place to both live and work. The city has good connections to the national road and motorway network, and excellent rail links to London.

Salisbury is an important centre in the south west of England. It is:

  1. a tourism destination of international significance;
  2. a business centre of regional importance;
  3. a sub-regional centre for retail, culture, housing and further education; and
  4. the centre of the Salisbury Diocese which covers most of Wiltshire and Dorset.

Nothing stands still, however.

Retail competition is increasing with new developments in Southampton, Bournemouth, Basingstoke, Andover and Winchester. Neighbouring towns and cities are also providing improved leisure and cultural opportunities whilst a lack of employment land close to the city threatens to restrict the growth and expansion of our local businesses. And our tourism industry continues to be challenged by low-cost airlines and newly developing domestic markets.

House prices are higher than the regional and national average whilst salaries are lower. People find it hard to get on the housing ladder and employers have difficulty in recruiting across a wide range of jobs and skills.

If we don’t tackle these issues now there is a real danger that Salisbury will go into a spiral of decline that will be much harder to get out of in the future.

Clearly something needs to be done and big decisions need to be made once more if Salisbury is to maintain its position as one of the southwest’s premier centres for business, tourism and retail. We need to make plans now if we want Salisbury to remain a pleasant and prosperous place where our children’s children want, and are able, to live and work.

Why now?

This is an excellent time for producing and implementing a Vision. There are a number of significant development opportunities and drivers for change within the city centre, which have the potential for significant impact on Salisbury for many years to come. These include:

  • changes in city centre parking demand and trends, in particular resulting from the opening of new park and ride sites;
  • the cathedral’s work on its future, including The Close;
  • future use of the Guildhall when the magistrates vacate the building;
  • Wiltshire College’s desire to rationalise their Salisbury campus and the opportunities that this provides for improving the Southampton Road
  • South Wiltshire Economic Partnership’s vision for the future use of Churchfields Industrial Estate;
  • the second Wiltshire Local Transportation Plan (2006-2011);
  • Regional Spatial Strategy and the identification of Salisbury as a "significant settlement";
  • fundamental changes to the planning system through the introduction of the Local Development Framework
What will the Vision actually do?

The Salisbury Vision provides a framework for coordinating and achieving the sustainable regeneration of five priority areas – the Maltings and central car park, Churchfields Industrial Estate, Salisbury Guildhall, the Market Place, and the Southampton Road. This will make a significant contribution to the life and economy of the city by providing much needed additional office, retail, leisure and other employment space. Considerable improvements will also be made to the city’s streets and other public areas through the development and implementation of a comprehensive public realm strategy. And finally the city’s transport infrastructure will be overhauled putting the focus on the pedestrian and on public transport.

In simple terms the Salisbury Vision will provide an improved quality of life for residents, an improved experience for visitors and an improved economic environment for businesses. It will do this by providing.

  • More office and employment space
  • A bigger range of shops
  • More housing and particularly affordable housing
  • Additional high quality hotels
  • Higher wages for employees
  • Improved cultural facilities
  • An improved public transport system
  • A much more attractive and ‘green’ city
  • A more pedestrian (and car driver) friendly city
What will success look like?

Ultimately we will have been successful if we achieve our Vision for Salisbury - for it to be a clean, green, safe and friendly city; a place that is consistently acknowledged as being one of England’s best places to live. Success also means keeping our promise to make sure that Salisbury becomes a truly sustainable community.

If we are successful there will be a number of significant economic, social and environmental benefits for the city, its people, and for the wider Wiltshire community. Success means an improved quality of life for residents, an improved experience for visitors and an improved economic environment for businesses. Success will bring:

  • more office and employment space;
  • a bigger range of shops;
  • more housing and particularly affordable housing;
  • additional high quality hotels;
  • higher wages for employees;
  • improved cultural facilities;
  • an improved public transport system;
  • a much more attractive and ‘green’ city;
  • a more pedestrian (and car driver) friendly city.

Each of us as individuals, whether we live in, work in or simply visit the city, will also have our own idea of what success looks like – for the Vision overall and for the issues that most affect us personally. And each of the Vision projects will also have their own measures of success.

One of our first jobs, now that the Vision has been published, is to examine what these many success factors may be. By doing this we will be able to critically monitor our progress and, therefore, ensure that we really do bring about the changes needed to deliver the Salisbury Vision.

How has the Vision been produced?

In February 2006 a team of consultants was appointed to develop the Salisbury Vision. This work was funded by Salisbury District Council in partnership with the South West Regional Development Agency and Wiltshire County Council. We discussed with the consultants what we thought the issues were and our initial thoughts on how they could be resolved. We also identified four key areas that we considered to be a priority:

The Maltings and central car park

Southampton Road A36

The Market Place and Guildhall Square

The Churchfields Industrial Estate

The project was managed by a Steering Group that comprised representatives from:

  • Salisbury District Council (Councillors and officers)
  • Wilshire County Council (Councillors and officers)
  • South West Regional Development Agency
  • Salisbury City Centre Management Ltd
  • Federation of Small Businesses
  • Salisbury and District Chamber of Commerce and Industry
  • Salisbury Civic Society
  • Salisbury Cathedral
  • South Wiltshire Economic Partnership

During the development of the Vision a number of different consultation exercises were carried out using various techniques in an attempt to get as much community involvement as possible. Events included:

  • Drop-in event 26 - 27 May 2006
  • Forum consultation 22 June 2006
  • St Edmund's community meeting 17 July 2006
  • Salisbury District Council officers' options development workshop 26 July 2006
  • Surveys of commuters and Park and Ride users July-August 2006
  • Councillors' options development workshop 2 August 2006
  • Churchfields Industrial Estate meeting 3 August 2006
  • City centre businesses workshop 6 September 2006
  • Public exhibition 28-30 September 2006
  • Forum workshop 4 October 2006
  • Our place in the future public consultation 26 July - 5 October 2007

Many residents, community groups, businesses and statutory organisations provided feedback which helped shape the Vision you see today.

Who’s going to pay for this to happen/what will it cost?

The overall Vision programme has been designed so that there will be little need for funding from the local authority. The programme will be self-financing with all of the income generated through Vision development projects, in the form of planning gain packages, capital receipts and other financial arrangements, being ring-fenced and used to fund the planned huge investment in the city’s public realm. The development projects will also, to a certain extent, provide funding for some elements of the traffic and movement projects. The delivery of the Vision’s development projects, particularly those that relate to local authority owned land, and the re-investment of income generated is, therefore, crucial to the success of the overall Vision project.

There is also an interdependency between the need to resolve the city’s transportation and parking issues, through the development of parking and transport strategies, and certain development projects.

Is it definitely going to happen?
This is an ambitious programme. Some of these projects are relatively easy to achieve, others less so, and a few will be very difficult. We can deliver some of these projects on our own but for the majority we will need to work in partnership with others. We have developed good working relationships with a range of external organisations and agencies and they, like the district and county councils, are committed to the aim of the Salisbury Vision. We will, therefore, work with them to ensure that our plans become reality. Some projects are aspirational in that the degree to which we can directly affect their implementation is limited. Where this is the case, our role will be to create an environment that will influence and encourage others to deliver the projects shown.
Is there any real commercial interest in ideas like these?
There is already considerable private sector interest in investing in Salisbury particularly from the retail sector and this project is creating even more.
Won’t all this development just make Salisbury like Southampton, Bournemouth or Poole?
No – the Salisbury Vision concentrates on protecting, celebrating and enhancing what already makes Salisbury so distinctive and such a special place. By having an overall framework for development in the city we can ensure there is a high level of local control over what happens. Salisbury’s reputation as a shopping destination with a mix of independent, specialist retailers and major chains will be maintained and enhanced.
Won’t all these modern ideas be out of place in an historic setting like Salisbury?
We were really surprised during the consultations to see how many local people have stressed the need to be bold and visionary. That does not have to be at the expense of the city’s visible heritage. In fact it can be more helpful sometimes to provide contrast than to copy. Norwich, Chester and York for example show how well contemporary development can complement and enhance historic settings. The Salisbury Vision suggests that we make the most of our heritage by uncovering more of it and the ‘Nuggs 1268’ building on the corner of Blue Boar Row is a good example of how this can be achieved.
Isn’t this level of change going to make our city centre into a 15-year building site?
Some changes will be small and can be done quickly with minimal disruption. The bigger sites are going to take longer to build but it is unlikely that all would be underway at the same time. At any moment over the next 15 years you could walk around and find something happening at every moment, but there will also be areas left undisturbed for almost all of the next 15 years.
How can I get more information?

If you need more information than is available on this website you can contact us directly at vision@salisbury.gov.uk or give us a call on 01722 434677.

We will be launching a new website in the autumn dedicated to the Vision project which will contain much more detailed and up to date information.

You can also sign up to receive regular updates on the project through our Vision e-newsletter by emailing vision@salisbury.gov.uk

Contact details:

Telephone:
01722 434677

email:
vision@salisbury.gov.uk

Postal address:
Economic Development,
Salisbury District Council,
3 Rollestone Street,
Salisbury, SP1 1DX