Supporting Salisbury and Amesbury communities

Free business advice and support is available to businesses in Amesbury and Salisbury. For details of drop-in sessions, please see below. If you have any concerns about your business, you can access emergency support here.

You can get drop-in business advice and support at the following locations:

• Salisbury, Old Fire Station Enterprise Centre, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday
• Antrobus House, Amesbury, 10am-12 noon, Monday and Wednesday
• Amesbury Library, 10am-12 noon, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

There is also a special drop-in session at the Old Fire Station Enterprise Centre. No need to book, just turn up:

• 21 August: Salisbury Chamber: 60 Minutes, from 7.45am

You can pre-book 1-2-1 appointments with an independent business advisor in both Amesbury and Salisbury on the following dates: 14, 15, 16, 22, 28, 30 August.

To book, please call 01225 402096.

To book on any of these workshops, click on the links below:

• 14 August: Strategic Market Planning
• 22 August: Business Finance Planning
• 11 September: Business Finance Planning
  
• 17 and 18 September: Two-Day Intensive Business Strategy Workshop
• 24 September: Strategic Market Planning

Download an application form for financial support. Please complete this form then arrange an appointment or drop in at The Old Fire Station. You will need to provide trading figures to show how your business has been impacted.

If your business has been impacted by the Salisbury and Amesbury incidents, please take a few minutes to complete this online survey. The data will be used to report to government in order to make clear the need for resources to assist recovery in the area.

Parking is free in all Wiltshire Council car parks in Salisbury after midday on weekdays, and all day at weekends. Find a car park in Salisbury.

All five park and ride sites that serve Salisbury are free until further notice.

There are five sites in the city:

• Beehive
• Britford
• London Road
• Petersfinger
• Wilton

To find out more, including bus timetables and where to find your nearest park and ride, see Salisbury Reds.

Parking is free in all Wiltshire Council car parks in Amesbury after midday on weekdays, and all day at weekends. Find a car park in Amesbury.

There's always lots of events and activities on in the Salisbury and Amesbury areas.

• Visit Wiltshire
• City Hall
  
• Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre
• Salisbury City Council
• Spire FM
• Salisbury Cathedral
• Salisbury Playhouse
• Salisbury Arts Centre
• Salisbury Museum
• Salisbury Journal
• Raring2go
• Old George Mall
• Odeon Salisbury
• Salisbury gig guide
• Destination Salisbury
• Mompesson House

Due to the ongoing investigation into the major incident in Salisbury and Amesbury, and following the current advice of Public Health England (PHE), we recommend that any planned community litter picks in the Salisbury and Amesbury community areas are postponed until further notice.

As a precaution, PHE's advice to everyone in the Salisbury and Amesbury area is that nobody should pick up any foreign object that does not belong to them. 

These could contain (or could have previously contained) liquid or gel.

This means people should not pick up:

• Containers
• Lids
• Syringes
• Needles
• Cosmetics
• Or similar objects, made of materials such as metal, plastic or glass.

The message is: if you didn't drop it, don't pick it up

We really appreciate and welcome people's enthusiasm to carry out clean-ups and litter picks in their local communities and we hope that we can recommend these continuing, as soon as possible.

PHE's current advice, based on the small number of casualties affected following the recent incident, is that the risk to the public remains low. They will keep this assessment under constant review as further information becomes known.

Get the the latest information from Public Health England

Read the FAQs from Public Health England.

Download the advice for coping with stress following a major incident.

The Amesbury meeting will be was held on Wednesday 25 July at The Stonehenge School Amesbury. You can watch the meeting again on our Facebook page or on YouTube.

The Salisbury meeting was held on Tuesday 24 July at Salisbury City Hall. You can watch the meeting again on our Facebook page or on YouTube.

More than 250 people were updated on the latest situation at the meeting at Antrobus House on July 10. If you would like to watch the previous public meeting in Amesbury, you can watch it on our Facebook page or on YouTube.

The new extended opening hours at Boots chemist, Salisbury Street, Amesbury, are:

• Monday-Friday: 8am-8pm 
  
• Saturday: 8.30am-5pm 
• Sunday: 10am-4pm

There are books of condolence for Dawn Sturgess in both Amesbury Library and Salisbury Library until further notice. We would be grateful if as many people as possible could sign them and leave comments.

The books of condolence will also be available at any future public meetings for all those wishing to sign them.

Baroness Jane Scott, the Leader of Wiltshire Council, said: "I welcome the announcement of the Prime Minster today (11 July) regarding the £2.8m support package for Salisbury and Amesbury from government.

"The impact of both incidents in Amesbury and Salisbury is undoubtedly having an impact and support is urgently needed to assist our local communities and businesses. Since the first incident in March the city of Salisbury has shown its resilience and had started to get back to normal and footfall was slowly increasing. The second incident has inevitably hit hard and everyone is devastated at the tragic death of Dawn Sturgess.

"We recognise that recovery and the return to normal business will take time. This additional funding of £2.8m to support the council is vital. We will continue to allocate the resources needed, both people and funding, to assist the communities and the businesses directly affected by these extraordinary events. Working closely with those impacted we can continue to allocate grants and Business Rate Relief and do all we can to make sure they can sustain this difficult period.

"Since mid-March we lifted car parking charges in all our Salisbury City Centre car park and on Monday (9 July) we replicated this in our Amesbury car parks. Free parking has encouraged shoppers and visitors and this must continue given the current situation. The support from government to assist with this cost is extremely welcome and will be well received by local businesses and shoppers.

"We are working closely with our local and national partners to make sure that we can provide essential support to the communities and businesses affected by these unprecedented incidents."

This new package is in addition to the £2.5 million that has been made available since March to support the local community.

Today's package includes:

• £997,000 to support Wiltshire Council's response and recovery costs;
• £927,000 to provide immediate support to local businesses and to counter their loss of earnings; 
• £870,000 to boost the vital tourism industry in the region, including £570,000 for free parking and park-and-ride services, in the South Wiltshire area.

In addition, the Home Office has approve a further £2.5 million in special grant funding to cover extra costs incurred by Wiltshire Police, taking the total provided to the police since March to £4.1m.

I would like to update council members of the latest situation regarding the incident and ongoing investigation in Amesbury and Salisbury. 

I am sure that, like myself, you will have been shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the tragic death of Dawn Sturgess on Sunday evening and will join me in sending our sincere condolences to her family and friends. We must acknowledge the role of Salisbury District Hospital that worked tirelessly to treat Ms Sturgess following exposure to the nerve agent Novichok. 

Her partner Charlie Rowley is still being treated in Salisbury hospital and he is in a critical condition. Our thoughts are also with him, his family and friends during what is clearly a difficult time for them all.  

Having a death occur in our local community; particularly in such extraordinary circumstances is undoubtedly affecting those who live and work there. Our role is to support our partners whilst they carry out their investigation into this dreadful crime. 

As I am sure you are aware, this incident is now being investigated as a murder and is being led by the UK’s Counter Terrorism Policing Network supported by Wiltshire Police. 

Our responsibility as Wiltshire Council is to be a vital link with local communities to make sure that we keep people informed of the latest information as it becomes available. This is a fast-moving situation, the like of which we have never experienced in Wiltshire before, and we understand that people are concerned; particularly those in Salisbury and Amesbury. 

It is also important that we provide support to those directly affected and to the most vulnerable in our communities, who are finding this incident extremely upsetting and difficult. It is important to reassure our communities and the current advice from Public Health England is that the wider risk to public health remains low. I would refer anyone with concerns to the health advice available on Public Health England’s website which is also posted on our dedicated Salisbury page on the council’s website, or to contact the helpline that has been set up on 0800 092 0410 or 020 7158 0124 to respond to any health concerns. 

It is vital that we continue to assist local businesses and yesterday I announced that in Amesbury we have lifted the parking charges on our Central and Church Street car parks and we will be visiting all local businesses to assess their needs and provide any support that is needed. 

People can now park free of charge from 12pm Monday to Friday and free all day at the weekend. We will continue to work with our communities in Amesbury and Salisbury to support them during this testing time. Since the first incident occurred in March they have shown just how resilient and determined they are in the face of unprecedented challenges and I am sure that this will continue. We will do all that we can to help both these communities affected get back to normal.

This evening we are a holding a community meeting at 7.00 pm at Antrobus House in Amesbury to update on the current position and to provide an opportunity for people to ask questions and raise any issues they might have. The representatives, confirmed so far, from local and national partner agencies that will be attending are:

Myself as the chair of the meeting 

• Kier Pritchard, Chief Constable, Wiltshire Police
• Paul Cosford, Director for Health Protection and Medical Director, Public Health England
• Cara Charles-Barks, Chief Executive, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust 
• Alistair Cunningham, Chair of the Salisbury recovery coordinating group
• Angus Macpherson, Police and Crime Commissioner
• UK Counter Terrorism representative 
• Ben Ansell, Chief Fire Officer, Dorset & Wiltshire Fire Service
• Jane Whichello, Deputy Commander (Wiltshire), South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust

I will continue to make sure that you are updated as matters progress.

Thank you

Last week the Prime Minister announced a further £2.8m support package for Salisbury and Amesbury following the two major incidents which have had significant impact on those communities and businesses.

This included £927,000 to provide immediate support to prevent business closures and safeguard jobs. This funding means we can continue to allocate grants and business rate relief and do all we can to make sure those businesses are supported during this difficult period.

Salisbury had started to get back to normal following the March incident and footfall was steadily recovering. The second incident has inevitably hit hard which is why this additional funding is so vital.

We recognise that recovery and the return to normal business will take time which is why my message to businesses is that we are here to help. If your business in Salisbury or Amesbury has suffered, business advisors are available at our Enterprise Centre (The Old Fire Station, Salt Lane, Salisbury) and can help with business issues including marketing, sales, access to finance including cash flow, tax advice, leadership mentoring and more. You can call the Growth Hub on 01225 402096 to make an appointment to see someone in Salisbury or Amesbury, or you can just drop in to the Enterprise Centre.

We have already granted, or are currently processing, business grants to 70 businesses of a total of £333,248. This includes forward-looking funding designed to assist businesses promote and grow their businesses once the immediate impact of the major incident has passed. Hardship rate relief provided to date totals £141,440.

It's important to make businesses in Salisbury and Amesbury aware that help is available. If you have serious concerns about your business, emergency financial support is available.

My message is come and talk to us, help is available. I am also asking other stakeholders in Salisbury and Amesbury to help spread this message through their channels as it's important we reach as many businesses as possible.

Cllr Pauline Church

Cabinet member for economic development and Salisbury recovery

We understand what a difficult time this must be for Mr Rowley, his family and friends. We have worked with Mr Rowley to ensure he is able to move into suitable temporary accommodation while he is unable to access his home. His temporary home has been furnished and decorated, and we will continue to support him through this difficult period.

Baroness Scott OBE, leader of Wiltshire Council, said: “We welcome the news that Charlie Rowley has been discharged from hospital and wish him well for his ongoing recovery. Wiltshire Council will continue working with our partner agencies to ensure Charlie has all the support he needs.”