Earlier in 2023 we were consulting with businesses regarding their future business priorities and understandably one of the key factors was the relationship between city centre use and parking provision.   

Following the work they have done across the country, we commissioned People & Places Partnership Ltd. combining forces with Park Consult to look in particular at parking provision, it’s fit with different customer needs and the journey through the car parks to city centre attractions and businesses.

They use their People, Places & Parking Process that focuses on the quality, quantity, convenience and cost of parking from the perspective of different users including the ‘pop-&-shopper’, the leisure shopper, workers and day visitors to Salisbury. 

They have completed their initial review with the purpose of providing an insightful overview of parking operations and the wider relationship to city centre prosperity. This then will identify opportunities and make recommendations for further work to assist in enhancing parking operations. 

Both Wiltshire Council and Salisbury City Council have been engaged as part of this process along with other city stakeholders and we look forward to developing the findings from the review and discussing and agreeing recommendations with all stakeholders.  

We particularly thank Wiltshire Council for their positive and constructive engagement as well as their willingness to consider the external report and recommendations as part of the Local Transport Plan and Parking strategic review. 

We will look to share some of the key recommendations from this report early in 2024 with businesses. 

We can also confirm that in the last couple of months we have been actively working with Wiltshire Council and other city stakeholders to find some short term solutions to support businesses in the Christmas trading period with improvements on city parking accessibility for visitors as we are very mindful of the impact of major city developments.  

Salisbury BID have part funded and been involved with a number of these activities. 

• Communicating business impact and concerns to Wiltshire Council around the major city developments 
• Using Experience Salisbury website and social media channels to focus on Fisherton Street businesses 
• Responsive traffic management at Central Car Park 
• Improved and additional signage around Central Car Park and compound hoardings 
• Central Car Park season ticket holders able to park on the short stay top deck car park near Sainsburys during the River Park works to free up more long stay spaces 
• Ten new variable message signs around the city access roads to direct visitors and shoppers to appropriate car parks as well as additional parking signage with the city centre 
• Additional Park & Ride buses and promotion of bus travel 
• Traffic Marshalls directing traffic around the Old George Mall, Brown Street and Culver Street Car Park areas on Fridays and Saturdays to help support visitors. 
• Re-opening of the top floor of Culver Street along with enhanced cleaning 
• City Map supplies at key locations and dispensers across the city 
• Visitor communications via radio, press, social media with consistent messaging echoed by city partners 

Please see Salisbury Traffic Management - Wiltshire Council for further details of traffic management and Salisbury major investments.