As part of Safer Business Action Week, Safer and Supportive Salisbury hosted a reception at City Hall on 11 November for members of the Salisbury Safe Places scheme. With a current total of 43 Safe Places in Salisbury and a further 21 in Calne, SaSS is helping to spread the scheme more widely across the county. Cllr Laura Knight, Deputy Mayor of Amesbury Town Council joined the event too as the scheme is being launched there with support from SaSS.
The event provided an opportunity for SaSS Trustees to express their thanks to the businesses that provide Safe Places across Salisbury, helping to make it a safe and welcoming city to live, work and visit. Dan Collins from Salisbury BID said he was delighted to be supporting Safe Places on behalf of the businesses in Salisbury. The support of the BID enables the scheme to be linked to the National Safe Places Network.
Pip Loach, SaSS Trustee and a member of Wiltshire Council’s Prevention and Wellbeing Team, gave an example of why the scheme was so important to the community. She said: “When a gentleman we had been supporting travelled outside Salisbury for his first solo day trip a minor moment of anxiety turned into a major panic attack when he discovered there were no Safe Places in the local town he was visiting and in the absence of visible support the emergency services ended up being called.” Pip highlighted that sometimes small interventions from friendly people at the right time can be just what is needed.
Attending to show their support for the Salisbury Safe Places scheme were Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson OBE, Cllr Alan Hagger, Community Safety Partnership and Vice Chair of the Police and Crime Panel of Wiltshire Council and Natasha Gell, the Wiltshire Council Community Safety Partnership Lead.
Liz Batten from SaSS told attendees “We are planning to offer free training sessions to support our Safe Places teams on topics including Neurodiversity, Sunflower Lanyard Awareness and Dementia Friends. We would be interested to know what training you would like.” SaSS would like to hear from any other businesses that would like to become a Safe Place and urge anyone wanting to find out more about the scheme to get in touch.