Enthusiastic responses on our stand at the event
May 2025
People in the Park is an annual event which takes place in Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury and this year’s was very well attended. A sunny day people were out in numbers throughout the event. SDA had a stand there focusing particularly on the People’s Assemblies the third and final one of which takes place on June 1st at the Football Club.
We had a great deal of interest in the chart we displayed which had the top ten things people wanted to see changed in Salisbury. You can see from the chart that a lot of stickers were attached to the various ideas by visitors to our stand. There does seem to be a hunger for involvement by people who sometimes feel left out or marginalised by the existing political system. Perhaps it is one of the reason Reform did so well in the recent elections – winning many seats in Wiltshire for example – because people’s concerns do not find their way into the mainstream party’s thinking. Not always fair of course and it remains to be seen how well Reform actually performs now it has a bigger presence in the political firmament.
Among the ten top suggestions, several concerned housing where people said they wanted more affordable houses and flats. They were also concerned at developers not meeting their planning obligations, often claiming as Shelter notes, that once on site they carry out viability assessments which show – amazingly – that they cannot build all the affordable units they promised.
We also had more people sign up for our third People’s Assembly on June 1st including a number of local councillors. There are still spaces and if you are interested please contact Mark Potts mapotts53@gmail.com or leave a note here. See a report on the second assembly.
Thanks to SDA members Mike, Andrew and Mark who manned the stand. Main picture below shows the large number of spots on the options chart. Mark and Andrew pictured.
Our next Democracy Café takes place in the Library on Saturday 14 June. Previous write ups of these are elsewhere on this site.
Salisbury Democracy Alliance 