Salisbury City Hall: Tempers flared at council meeting

At the latest meeting of the Salisbury Area Board on Thursday evening, representatives from Wiltshire Council offered no substantive update on the building.

At the Five Rivers Leisure Centre, Director of Leisure, Culture & Communities David Redfern, announced Savills had received interest from multiple parties, but warned negotiations were strictly confidential.

The Wiltshire Council representative said: “I’m sure you can appreciate there’s very much a commercial nature to what we’re doing here, we’ve made no bones about that, from the start.

“At this time, it is commercially confidential.”

He continued: “That, hopefully, gives you an indication of how close we may be in announcing something that’s rather more positive.”

Salisbury City Hall has been vacant since January 2023, following the closure of the NHS Covid vaccine clinic there.

Wiltshire Council announced last May that they had instructed estate agent Savills to market City Hall on their behalf to ‘prospective organisations.’

Read more: City Hall update to be heard at council meeting tonight

City Hall served as a Covid vaccine clinic, but it has been vacant since January 2023 (Image: Newsquest)Mayor of Salisbury Sven Hocking was one of the lone voices sympathetic to Wiltshire Council’s position.

He said: “We are moving the process forward as fast as we can do it, within the realms of commercial confidence.

“We can’t say too much because we’ve got several bidders involved and we can’t be seen to pander to public pressure.”

Cllr Hocking added: “We need to get through this process first and people need to just back off.”

Redfern announced Savills will ask interested parties to confirm views on the lease and scheduling at the end of September.

The estate agent will then make recommendations to Wiltshire Council based on the outcomes.

City Hall once welcomed acts as famous as David Bowie (Image: Frogg Moody) The Journal quizzed councillors Paul Sample and Samuel Charleston on their views of Wiltshire Council’s update.

Councillor Sample believes the public deserve to know more about the negotiations and should be given a timetable of when milestones are likely to happen.

He asserted: “They keep avoiding answering simple questions, which have no commercial significance.

“A timetable is something which could easily be given to members of the public, and anyone bidding for it would want to ask the same question.”

He continued: “We ask for a report every Area Board, and have been for three years, and each meeting we have more bluster and smokescreens.”

Taking aim at the question of commercial confidence, Councillor Charleston asked why more councillors, if not the public, were not privy to negotiations.

The member for St Paul’s said: “It’s clear that other councillors are getting that briefing; they are getting that information.

“We as Area Board members and, in Paul’s [Sample] case, City Hall sits within his division, we are not getting that.”

Councillor Samuel Charleston believes not all councillors are receiving the same information (Image: Newsquest) Chris Bradley, from Friends of Salisbury City Hall, clashed with Wiltshire Council’s representative more than once during the meeting.

In a statement to the Journal, he said: “The absence of a response to a question submitted weeks ago and the lack of detail, particularly on the timelines, adds to residents’ frustration and does little to instil public confidence in the Council’s ability to deliver before Christmas.

“City Hall is one of the most important cultural assets Wiltshire Council inherited from the people of Salisbury. 

“Its long-term closure has not only impacted the cultural life of Salisbury and the surrounding area, but also local businesses and the council, who spend significant funds to maintain an empty building.”

He continued: “We are keen to continue supporting the Council and look forward to receiving the timeline as part of the minutes from last night’s meeting.”

Councillor Richard Clewer, Leader of the council, said: “We’re pleased that there has been interest in City Hall as given its heritage and location in the centre of Wiltshire’s only city it offers so much potential for a successful future. We see a successful re-opened City Hall complementing the wider cultural offer of Salisbury and all the other investment currently taking place in the city.

“We want Salisbury City Hall to be sustainable for the long-term at no extra cost to the Wiltshire Council taxpayer and that’s why this due diligence is so essential – we want to get this right.

“Due to the commercial nature of the conversations, and with the marketing still ongoing for a short time longer, we can’t share any further specific details at this stage, but we will keep everyone updated as soon as we’re able to.”

The council added that as part of the process, it has invited any potential interested tenants to submit social value plans.

It said: "When appropriate the council will have separate discussions relating to the added social value that can be delivered through City Hall and how the venue can contribute to the aims and objectives set out in the council’s new Cultural Strategy for Wiltshire, which was formally adopted in July."