Archive for year: 2026

The play area on the byway is entirely owned by the Parish Council – this includes both the land and the equipment. The equipment is checked by trained members of the Parish Council at least every 14 days with an annual safety inspection by a 3rd party.

The rubber safety mats of both sections of the play area have recently been treated to remove moss that had grown on them over the winter.

Over the next few months the benches in the junior section will be refurbished and parts of the perimeter fence that are life expired and rotten will be replaced with recycled plastic materials (imitation wood).

Maintenance activities within the Parish are carried out entirely be volunteers. If parishioners have a few spare hours to assist, then please get in touch.

The Parish Council have replaced the bench on Firs Rd opposite Maple Drive. The old bench was life expired with failed concrete supports and rotten timber. The new bench is made from fully recycled  material.

The property behind the bench is unoccupied and vegetation from their boundary hedge was encroaching onto the public footpath. This has also been cut back to clear the footpath and the area around the bench and the rubbish bin.

Last autumn the Parish Council planted another 400 wild daffodils bulbs of 2 different species on the byway. These are in addition to the 400 bulbs planted the previous year. Being wild species, the plants and flowers are smaller than the more common domestic varieties. Additionally newly planted bulbs may not flower in the first year. This is indeed the case for around half of those bulbs planted last autumn.

The Firsdown conservation group have also planted daffodils on the verge at the top of Firs Rd. As these get established, they are being transplanted further along the verge.

The power cut that Firsdown experienced on the evening of 7th March was part of a larger outage along the route of the A30 from Laverstock to Lopcombe Corner affecting over 1500 properties including the Winterslows.

The fault was caused by on overhead line falling from a pole which caused the power to trip out. Power was restored to Firsdown after about 2 hours by re-routing supplies around the fault. SSEN completed repairs on the line around midnight which allowed the last remaining households to be reconnected.

The distribution supplier for Firsdown is SSEN, regardless of who you pay your bill with.

There is a power cut tracker available online. Zoom in on the map to Firsdown/Salisbury.

If your household contains any of the following:

• Deaf or hard of hearing
• Have a disability
• Live with children under five
• Are blind or partially sighted
• Have a chronic illness
• Use medical equipment/aids reliant on electricity
• Are over 60
• Temporarily need extra support

You may wish to register with SSEN Priority Services or phone 0800 294 3259. Priority services will provide additional help, reassurance and updates during a power outage. In the event of a prolonged power outage, additional assistance will be provided such as gas heaters or generators to power medical equipment.

If you can provide assistance to elderly neighbours and residents during a power outage, then please do so. A simple knock on their door to check they are OK and to reassure them, or the loan of a high powered LED torch can reduce their anxiety and make them feel safer.