Open city

Good to see this area of Salisbury coming back to life today after weeks of being largely a ‘no-go ‘ area while police and security services investigated the much reported nerve-agent poisoning in the city centre in early March.

This area was at the centre of the investigation but security restraints were lifted on the normally popular shopping and tourist locality known as The Maltings at the weekend.

Today, as I strolled by the river which runs by the centre, there were plenty of visitors, and shops which were hit by the no-go limits were endeavouring to get back to normal. The city of Salisbury, its Cathedral and quaint historic buildings is a magnet for tourists too and there were plenty of foreign tongues within earshot.

There were still security restrictions on the periphery, but the sun is shining again on the city immortalised by the 18th-19th century artist John Constable.