SALISBURY taxpayers could be left to foot part of the bill for free parking in the city after the nerve agent attack, after reports that no recovery money has yet been allocated to the city council.

At a full council meeting on Monday night, Lib Dem Brian Dalton raised the question of how the city had been impacted by the decision to remove and alter parking charges since March 2018.

In a discussion about setting the city’s budget, which was agreed by the council during the meeting, the council’s income from car parking was recorded as being £180,000 for the last financial year (2018/19).

But when Cllr Dalton asked how the free parking had affected this figure, city clerk Annie Child said the income was actually “significantly down”.

She said the estimated income loss to the council was about £90,000.

“I am still in discussions [with Wiltshire Council] about whether any of that money will be refunded to us,” she added.

More than £7million of recovery money was allocated to Wiltshire Council and Wiltshire Police to support Salisbury and Amesbury after the nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March, and second incident involving Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess at the end of June.

Wiltshire Council chose to suspend parking charges in Salisbury and Amesbury following the events, in a bid to encourage visitors and boost business, and later only charged between 8am and 3pm on Monday to Saturday.

The clerk said Salisbury City Council, which is responsible for the car parks at Churchill Gardens and Lush House, was “happy to support this initiative to promote the city after the March incident”.

She said she has “asked Wiltshire Council to consider refunding part of this lost income”, adding: “I believe this will be considered.”

Wiltshire Council has already spent £570,000 of the recovery money to cover the costs of free parking and park and ride services after each major incident, as well as contributing more than £1milion from its own reserves.

Alistair Cunningham, chairman of the South Wiltshire recovery coordinating group, said: “More than £1.6m has been spent on free car parking in Salisbury and Amesbury since March 2018, with more than £1.1m of this coming from Wiltshire Council reserves.

“We are continuing to work with partners and central government to secure more funding for south Wiltshire recovery.”

  • Council-run car parks in Salisbury are still free to park in after 3pm on Monday to Saturday, and all day on Sundays.

The council has said this will continue until Easter.