I am deeply disappointed that the SWLEP has confirmed the reallocation of the People Friendly Salisbury Scheme funds to Chippenham.

I raised concerns about the reallocation of the £1.3m to the leaders of Salisbury City Council, Wiltshire Council and to John Glen MP before Christmas and was met with dismissive responses and false promises.

Conservative mismanagement costs; Salisbury will miss out on £1.3m of funding, documents confirm.https://t.co/q810DUrUmp pic.twitter.com/tk1degLUtF

— Salisbury Lib Dems 🔶 (@salisburylibdem) January 22, 2021

This whole situation has highlighted the absence of leadership and partnership working across Salisbury and it is the residents of Salisbury that suffer from their incompetence.

I was advised that there would be ‘enough time to come up with flexible solutions to approve and implement the complementary measures.’

Instead, the loss of confidence in a scheme thrust upon Salisbury without adequate consultation or buy-in has pushed investment to elsewhere in Wiltshire - whilst costing an extraordinary £412,000!

The political fallout and Conservative Party split is indicative of the mishandling of this issue, at a time when we should be facilitating the move to cleaner and greener city.

Here's your afternoon news:

(1) More than £400,000 was spent on the short-lived People Friendly #Salisbury project last year, it has been reported.https://t.co/h6Bv3l6fRV pic.twitter.com/oUTuaXujca

— Salisbury Journal (@journalupdate) February 1, 2021