'Celebrate the city's charity shops'

SALISBURY needs to reinvent its city centre.

That’s the message that came across loud and clear from Saturday’s online debate staged by Wiltshire Creative.

Local traders need to sell online and on social media, and offer click and collect. Relying on walk-in custom won’t be enough.

Their big selling point needs to be their ethical, sustainable ethos, their role at the heart of a community, because, as Casa Fina’s Susi Mason put it: “People want to feel they belong.”

That means putting on tastings, workshops and demos. It means providing more central housing to encourage young people.

We need to celebrate our charity shops, said architect and regeneration expert George Ferguson. Hear, hear! They’re about recycling and reusing. Their presence shouldn’t be regarded as a sign of commercial failure. Customers should be proud of using them.

“A sharing economy has a great future. There should be libraries for sharing things, not just books,” he added.

We should be promoting regional food, not just in some posh Sunday market but every day. And back that up with stuff like street theatre.

“Be anarchic,” he advised, “and be prepared to experiment.”

Anywhere less anarchic than Salisbury I find hard to imagine. But you never know.

And customers? They need to stop spending their money online, and help support local jobs, declared teenage market stalwart Becca.

“What would Salisbury be without the shops?”

You can’t argue with that.