Archive for category: News

Firs Rd will be closed between the Ilynton Avenue and Firs Close junctions for a period between the 21st and 31st October. Access to driveways of residents in the closed section will be maintained, buses will be escorted through the closed section. Access to Firs Close and the eastern section of Firs Rd will be via the east end of the village (from the Winterslow direction) only.

The closure is to install a silt trap in the storm water drainage system. The work is expected to take around 3 days but the closure is for 2 weeks to allow for unforeseen issues. Once the work is complete, the road closure will be lifted.

The MOD section of Winterslow Road that crosses Porton Down Ranges will be closed to all traffic from the junction of the A30 to Blackbarn Road from Monday 16 September 2024 through to and including Thursday 19 September between the hours 10:00 to 15:00.

Diversions have been agreed with Wiltshire Council.

The Parish Council currently has a vacancy. We are looking for residents of Firsdown to join us, no prior experience is necessary and an hour or 2 of your time a month can make all the difference to improving facilities, the environment and benefitting the community.

In the last 4 months the Parish Council has:

• Set up a collection point for recycling of soft plastics
• Worked with Wiltshire Council to get the speed limit reduced on the A30 at the Firs Road junction
• Successfully lobbied to get a new drainage system built on the byway to capture rain water from the drain gullies in Firs Road and alleviate flooding of gardens in Firs Road.

Our work in the last year is outlined here, or why not watch the video.

We still have plans to do more, such as further safety improvements at the Dunstable cross roads, and we are always open to new ideas that can improve our environment and benefit the community.

Get in touch using the contact us link on the homepage if you are interested in joining with us and want to make a difference for Firsdown.

The Parish Council weren’t successful earlier in the year in obtaining Local Highways and Footpaths Improvements Group (LHFIG) funding to allow the A30 speed limit to be reduced at the Firs Road junction.

However we have continued to work with Wiltshire Council to find alternative funding so that the scheme can take place. The Parish Council are pleased to announce that this has been successful and the speed limit will be reduced on the A30 to 50mph in the vicinity of the Firs Rd junction.

Wiltshire Council are undertaking the formal design work and the necessary legal procedures. The scheme will be implemented by their highway maintenance contractor. Unfortunately we don’t yet know when this will be, it could be 6-12 months before the new lower limit is in place.

The daytime closure of the A30 to/from Salisbury between Old Malthouse Lane and the St Thomas’s Bridge roundabout for surface dressing  has been rescheduled to:

Tuesday 30th July – Thursday 1st August between 0930 and 1500.

Signed diversion routes will be provided.