Six months on and a big week in the Salisbury incident investigation

 This week marked six months since the first incident in Salisbury and a significant move in the investigation, with Counter Terrorism Police having enough evidence to charge two Russian men over the novichok attack. We hope this breakthrough provides reassurance to all those who have been affected by this incident, and shows just how seriously the police have taken this investigation.

Wiltshire Council continue to support Salisbury and Amesbury to ensure they thrive in the long-term. We would like to take this opportunity to again thank everyone right across the council, who have been involved in the recovery work so far. Likewise, we thank everyone who has been carrying out the ‘business as usual’ work as the incidents have had a knock-on effect on workloads. Your professionalism under pressure has been admirable.

While Alistair has been on annual leave this week, we led discussions with directors around the budget and upcoming cabinet and full council meetings.

Carlton attended meetings with our health partners Tuesday along with a visit to FDM printers Thursday, in his capacity as returning officer and electoral registration officer. This visit provided an opportunity to have a tour of the building to ensure the processes and quality assurance of all the print wok for our elections and annual canvass. We left feeling reassured of the quality of work and the systems in place.

Terence has been in various meetings planning and preparing for the impending Ofsted inspection. Terence and Lucy undertook a visit to the safeguarding team in the South of Wiltshire to spent time working with, and learning from, staff and their experiences.

With children now back to school, and some starting for the first time, this week saw the culmination of all the hard work of our admissions team in allocating places. As you can imagine this is an immensely difficult logistical challenge. Now the process starts again for next year’s school places, we wish our fabulous admissions team luck!

Dyson revealed plans to submit a planning application for their proposed campus at Hullavington Airfield last week. If it all goes through the plans will bring investment and high-skilled jobs to the county. Having a global brand like Dyson on our doorstep has been extremely valuable to the Wiltshire economy and it’s encouraging that they clearly value the opportunities available in our county.

Speaking of investment, this week’s Melksham Area Board heard a report on the progress of the town centre campus. Plans are moving forward well and when it opens as expected in 2021, it will provide a modern facility with a long-term sustainable future. It was also confirmed at the meeting that unfortunately the difficult decision has been taken to close the Christie Miller Sports Centre permanently next month. The centre is run for us by Places for People, and their staff will be offered jobs at other centres. It needed expensive work to get the centre to a good state to operate effectively, and that really wasn’t sensible given it was going to be replaced in the long-term. The centre was always going to close as part of the campus project which will be disappointing for some who use the leisure facilities or are based at the centre however, we will work to relocate the clubs that use the centre as best we can.

Melksham has seen major investment over the last 18 months, and the campus will be an impressive asset right at the heart of the community.

We’ll speak to you again next week.

Carlton and Terence