Good to see public get involved with plans

It showed that given an opportunity to play a constructive part in determining the city’s future, the public will grab it.

Many expressed worries about traffic and transport issues, and it’s not hard to see why.

The development will replace 1,008 short and long-stay parking spaces with 500 short-stay ones in a new multi-storey.

Wiltshire Council would like to steer the long-stayers out to the park and ride sites to help stem their losses. That may work.

But bear in mind that Salisbury is to sprout 9,000 extra households over the next few years, as decreed by the council’s core strategy.

My estimate is that this will mean at least 12,000 more cars tootling about the place – though not all at once, I hope, or we really will be in trouble!

And we mustn’t forget that the Salisbury Vision - not entirely unconnected to dear old Wiltshire Council - is really rather hoping to flog off the Brown Street and Salt Lane short-stay car parks for development too.

So when the residents of the new estates on our outskirts want to spend the cash they’ve earned commuting to wherever their 9,000- plus jobs are, what will their options be?

The park and ride sites will be bursting at the seams with displaced long-stay motorists, coaches ousted from the city centre to make way for new restaurants, and the hotly-anticipated hordes of day-trippers who will be attracted by the influx of big-name chain stores.

More bicycle lanes and extra bus services will provide a partial and undoubtedly green solution for local people, but I still haven’t seen anything remotely approaching an adequate, integrated transport strategy.

If there is anyone at Wiltshire who can convince me otherwise, could they please get in touch?

PS Call me naive, but I didn’t realise until Sunday that major retailers expect financial inducements from developers, such as rent-free periods and contributions to shop-fitting costs before they will deign to occupy the ‘anchor store’ site in any new centre.

Apparently it’s standard practice.

PPS Everybody wants a Primark. That’s what I kept hearing.

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here