SALISBURY pupils were invited to share their ideas on improving the city with the Salisbury Recovery Co-ordinating Group on Thursday.

Wiltshire Council leader Jane Scott and chairman of the recovery group Alastair Cunningham heard pitches from five teams about how to boost Salisbury’s economy and encourage visitors into the city.

The teams were winners and runners up of the Our City schools’ challenge, created by the Salisbury Chamber of Commerce and backed by the Journal.

Chamber president Andy Rhind-Tutt told the pupils Baroness Scott and Mr Cunningham were in the city “dealing with how to put Salisbury well and truly back on its feet”, and the views of young people could play a big part in the ongoing recovery.

Leehurst Swan focused on making the city accessible for everyone, whether they were in a wheelchair, visually impaired, or suffered from any other disability.

The team borrowed a wheelchair and visited shops in the city centre to see how many were really equipped, compared with information provided by Shop Mobility and said “some of them weren’t quite right”.

Girls from South Wilts Grammar School were interested in drawing shoppers to Salisbury, instead of competitors like Southampton and Basingstoke.

The pupils had organised talks with Lush Cosmetics and Primark to encourage them to open stores in the city, and Mr Cunningham said they could discuss the girls giving their pitch to the developers in charge of updating the Maltings.

Pupils at Salisbury Sixth Form College wanted to make the train station more welcoming with community art projects and encourage people to switch to electric vehicles by giving them incentives including reduced Park and Ride, with charging points at the stations.

Godolphin’s team focused on keeping the city environmentally friendly and litter free.

They had plans to introduce water refill stations to reduce waste and to install recycling bins in the city.

And boys from Bishop Wordsworth’s School were keen to promote tourism by encouraging businesses to stay in the city centre rather than moving to Southampton Road, and discussed options for a bypass or an improvement to the Southampton Road approach to the city.

Mr Cunningham told the teams the council “could do with some youth ambassadors” to take these plans to government and “champion the future of the city”.

After the event Baroness Scott told the Journal: “There’s been a lot of passion for the city, and how it’s going to recover.We need to be listening to this generation much more closely than we have in the past.

“It’s just been an hour of absolute inspiration for the city. I’m pleased that young people from across the city have given this so much independent thought.”