Play area bench refurbishment
The Chairman of the Parish Council, has stripped down and treated the wood of the 2 memorial benches in the play area.
Archive for year: 2026
Annual Parish, electors meeting 7th May 2026, 7.30pm
The Annual Parish meeting will take place in the committee room of the Winterslow Village Hall on Thursday 7th May 2026 at 7.30pm.
All town and parish councils are legally required to hold one such meeting a year – it is not a meeting of the Parish Council.
The meeting will be a review of the work of the Parish Council over the last year. This is also an opportunity for electors to raise any issues of their choice.
The agenda can be found here.
A30/ Firs Road new 50mph limit
The Parish Council are delighted to report that the new 50mph limit on the A30 is now in place at the Firs Road junction.
This has taken over 3 years to achieve. The Parish Council had to commission a study to verify the safety benefits – we ideally wanted a 40mph limit, but the junction didn’t meet this criteria. There was a statutory legal process to undertake by Wiltshire Council to reduce the speed limit, and this process has been revised which caused delay. Finally the physical works needed to be programmed into the highways maintenance schedule.
This is littering!
The Parish Council is appalled and disgusted by the actions of some dog owners who fail to clean up after their pets. Bags of dog waste left around full bins is littering. Dog waste has been left discarded by the children’s play area bin which is irresponsible behaviour. Even more disappointing is the action of some owners in breaking open one of the dog bins in an attempt to force more waste in.
Dog owners are legally required to clean up after their pets in public areas.
If a dog waste bin is full, use a litter bin or take the waste home with you and put it in your black bin. Do NOT leave it around an already full bin.
The contractors that empty the bins do not operate over public holidays, so hence the delay in them being emptied.
Play area spring clean
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.
Firs Road footpath
Further work has been carried out on the Firs Rd footpath from the field gate towards the A30.
The hedge has been trimmed and the path scraped back to the hardcore base to provide more grip and better drainage in wet weather. The useable width is now 3 times wider than before.
The photograph (click to show full image) shows the widened path and its original width in the background by the road signs. The last short remaining section to the A30 will be completed in the next few weeks.
Firs Road new bench
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.
Duke of Burgundy butterfly
This species of butterfly has declined significantly with less than 20 recorded sites left in southern England. It is a high priority for conservation. The butterfly lays its eggs on cowslip and primrose plants.
The Firsdown Conversation Group with the help of a local nature reserve, has obtained a quantity of wild primrose plants that will be transplanted to the wooded area at the top of Firs Rd with the aim to increase the habitat suitable for the Duke of Burgundy butterfly.
Byway daffodils
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.
Local youth events
A number of local youth events and activities are planned in nearby villages over the Easter school holidays. Details are here.