‘Reckless’ attack knocked city back twice

IT was a devastating setback for a city which was on the mend – the finding of a discarded perfume bottle in a rubbish bin by Charlie Rowley set off a new catastrophic chain of events.

More than three months after the deadly nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, Salisbury was in a stage of recovery with visitor numbers rising slowly.

But the spraying of the Nina Ricci perfume bottle on motherof-three Dawn Sturgess at boyfriend Mr Rowley’s flat in nearby Amesbury was to change all that.

The 44-year-old died just over a week later.

Her death shook the authorities which, based on evidence, had no reason to believe the poison remained in the area, and it opened a new decontamination site at the home of Mr Rowley.

Today, Alistair Cunningham, who is leading the recovery coordination group, told the Western Daily Press he still struggles to contemplate how the Russian assassins could have been so reckless, so careless.

Having overseen a bounceback in visitor numbers from a 16 per cent year-on-year fall in footfall after the March attack to four per cent down in June, the numbers plunged to 12 per cent.

Today, following months of work to promote the city and the offer of free parking after 3pm, that drop in footfall has reduced slightly to 10 per cent, signalling there is still work to be done.

“It was a devastating moment for the area and I still struggle personally at how they [Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov] did not care if their actions would impact other people.

“That is unfortunately the nature of these people.”

He added: “After the attack on the Skripals, there was a sense of real recovery, but the death of Dawn Sturgess; it changed the way we were all feeling.

“There was no evidence to suggest that they could be as reckless in just discarding the Novichok in the way it was. The evidence had shown it was not a possibility; we went off the principle that the city was decontaminated.”

But rather than continuing to look backward, Mr Cunningham is keen to assist the city in moving forward and recovering.

He can face up to falls in visitor numbers at the cathedral, the city’s Playhouse theatre and museum, and suggests much of it could be down to a change in routes for tour operators in the region, which now steer clear of Salisbury in favour of places like Bath and Winchester.

He said: “I’m talking to the operators, we want to get Salisbury back on their map again, but it is not just that; we are trying to build the offer and the products the city can offer. We say it is time to come back to Salisbury and see what we have to offer.”

This week, Mr Cunningham oversaw people taking part in the Local Government Challenge, taking place in Salisbury. It pits 10 of the brightest local government officers against each other in a competition where they have to overcome challenges.

He hopes to use some of the ideas and talent to secure around £18m from a government High Street Fund pot to boost the town, providing cash for schemes such as a night-time light and sound projection against buildings in the city centre to encourage more people to visit in the evenings.

Investment in the city’s railway station and better cycle access are also projects needing cash.

“We’ll never take out what happened from history, but we can move on as a community to again provide a vibrant, attractive city,” Mr Cunningham said.

We can move on as a community to again provide a vibrant,

attractive city ALISTAIR CUNNINGHAM