See last week’s Journal letters-page? There was one to treasure from the “Project Director Salisbury Vision” (PDSV). In it he described the Market Place as “probably one of the most important public spaces in Europe”.
Hang on: in Salisbury maybe, but in Europe??? Our modest square’s comparable with the elegance of those in Paris or Brussels, or Venice, or Madrid or 20 other cities I could name? I thought it was just somewhere handy to go shopping.
But there’s more to his letter than mere wild over-statement. This “renaissance” to attract new businesses and tourists involves architects and landscape designers competing to create “…a public space of the highest quality. Somewhere green with attractive seats, lighting and signing; a water feature perhaps and public art…”. Translation: the developers are circling.
The last time people mucked around with the Market Place was when local councillors decided to line it with continental-style street cafes. A little bit of Merrie England, we were told, with cheerful tourists sipping wine whilst morris dancers cavorted around them. (It’s supposedly what we’ve got now.)
Well, the sad result was that Jim Crouch reluctantly closed our only proper greengrocery because he was restricted to just one delivery a day instead of five (and that before 8-00 am.)
However, declares PDSV, 81 percent of those surveyed support the Salisbury Vision plans. Only ten percent oppose them. (The other nine percent? Dunno.)
I instinctively mistrust such polls. Remember the Bristol University traffic survey organised by those against an A36 Salisbury bypass? (“It will ruin a Constable view”, they claimed.)
That reported that 95% of all drivers entering the city stopped here. (Eight major roads entering South Wiltshire’s major choke-point and only five percent of cars and lorries were through-traffic? Oh, come ON.)
Nonsensical perhaps - but that ridiculous claim enabled campaigners who wouldn’t know a Constable View from Dixon of Dock Green to block the project, and it’s one reason why people are still killed in Death Valley.
Still, I could be wrong. Maybe our little market square really is one of the most important in Europe. But if so shouldn’t it become a World Heritage site like Stonehenge? Come on, PDSV: think big!
