A FURTHER £20,000 has been allocated to help the Salisbury recovery and its “journey of branding”.

As part of an ongoing focus to boost Salisbury following the nerve agent attack last year, £20,000 has been allocated from the Salisbury City Council contingency budget, to support both the city’s marketing strategy and local businesses.

The proposal was agreed by majority of councillors at the authority’s meeting on Monday night, with council leader, Jeremy Nettle, confirming he wanted the council to “work together” to increase footfall, which was “significantly affected” by the events of last year and had consequently not risen since 2017.

Of that amount, £10,000 of the suggested funding will be used in the Salisbury Competitive Brand Positioning project, working alongside investors including Visit Wiltshire, Wiltshire Council, Salisbury BID, Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire Creative and more.

“This £10,000 is all about taking us on that journey of branding. This is about taking us through the whole imagery of what Salisbury can deliver and making Salisbury attractive to visitors,” Cllr Nettle explained to fellow councillors.

The second £10,000 top up has been proposed “to do something for our local businesses”, as it would be allocated to projects that would benefit Salisbury residents.

The allocation of the second portion of funding will later be decided by Cllr Nettle and city clerk, Annie Child.

There was overriding support from councillors that approved the funding, including from Councillor Matthew Dean who said: “I’m supportive of these figures, this city went through a terrible incident and we’re not recovered yet, footfall is still down, businesses have struggled and individuals have struggled.

“We have got a moral responsibility to support the recovery process in Salisbury as a funding partner.”

In the year 2018/19 the sale of a piece of land totalling £25,000 was reinvested in recovery activity, enabling projects and visuals for the city including Christmas lights on Market Place trees until March (£8,687), Salisbury Live (£150), the Umbrella installation on High Street (£3,000), and Five Rivers Festival (£2,000).

Additionally around £5,400 was used to advertise city council markets and events, and a £5,000 grant was awarded to Visit Wiltshire for the Competitive Brand Positioning project.

The longer term recovery programme and proposals for funding from 2020 will be discussed later this year.