Although there have not been so many formal meetings over the last couple of months it has been pretty busy as you can see below. A highlight for both of us was our thank you party to those residents who helped us with our election campaign. One resident commented after the event, how lovely to see such a cross section of residents and indeed that is representive of our Clewer and Dedworth East residents. Thank you to all who came along. You can see we enjoyed the lovely cake (in photo above).
Consultation the old RHM site, Alma Road
Helen attended this consultation and expressed concerns that another retirement home is being proposed. We already have an increasing aging population with the impact on demand for our statutory Adult and Social Care services, and instead of attracting more older residents to the Borough we should be looking at how we could retain our youngsters. After the event I found others who had attended who had expressed the same concerns.
Rock the Rec
The first weekend of July we both attended Rock the Rec. Alison is one of the three organisers with Amy Tisi and Lee Hibbard as part of Clewer & Dedworth Together. Helen managed the raffle and tombola stand with other volunteers – the photo of the weekend was Helen rocking to her air guitar! It was a fun weekend with lots of great music including an Elvis, Oasis and Rod Stewart tribute bands as well as our very own local bands Euphoria, Vale Road Band and The Squirts. The event was compered by Windsor’s very own Kevin Cruise. We raised enough money to pay for the Dedworth Christmas lights amongst other things.
The Windsor Muslim Association
Together with Cllr Tisi Helen discussed with the Chair possible sites for the Association. Currently they meet at the Clewer Youth and Community Centre, Parsonage Lane. Helen also introduced the Chair to the services and support offered by Age Concern, the Alzheimers Dementia Support Group, and Age UK.
Bus Services
Both of us have been informing and promoting new bus services. There is the GoToGate from Dedworth to T5 Heathrow (more info here) and the new service 103 from Windsor to High Wycombe, via Slough, Farnham Common & Beaconsfield (more info here).
Thames Water
No serious leaks in July or August. Will this last? A resident thoughtfully alerted Helen that she had reported the start of a leak at the junction of Clewer Hill Road/St Leonards Road. This is where we had immense disruption during Ascot Week. She was then able to alert the RBWM Officer who is liaising directly with Thames Water to ensure not neglected.
Woody’s Cafe
We hold most of our meetings with groups or individuals at Woody’s Café. In some cases it introduces groups to its existence and its meeting facilities. Lee Hibbard, who runs the café, offers the small meeting room for free to charities, a great service for our community. A mug of tea only costs 50p! She deliberately charges low prices to ensure it is truly a community café. The larger meeting room is now Windsor Soft Play and this is now open – but softly!
Age Concern
Helen has been appointed as the Council Representative to Age Concern Windsor. She was already actively supported them, promoting their events and attending their AGM’s and Summer Fayre. She is now ramping up the support and held a very constructive meeting with the Manager, so probably you’ll find even more information about their services being circulated by her. They held an Open Morning to showcase what local support there was for those over 50. Organisations such as Berkshire Vision, Seniors helping Seniors, the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service. Helen will be posting more details of each of these services over the coming weeks.
New Windsor Community Association
Alison has been appointed the council representation for NWCA in Hanover Way. She attended an initial meeting and will attend the committee meeting in September.
Legoland
LEGOLAND invited all RBWM Councillors to a briefing and show round. With so many new Councillors they wanted to ensure they brought everyone up to speed with their plans. We had a tour of the site before a briefing with questions and answers. We heard how visitor numbers are capped which enables a better visitor experience as well as reducing traffic. This cap is nearly half of what it was several years ago, when on a peak day visitor numbers were around 21,000 – no wonder the roads were gridlocked!
Perrycroft
You may have noticed that a bush has been cut back which had fallen onto a path cutting through one of the greens at the entrance to Perrycroft. This will be tidied up over the Winter and the trees team will visit and assess what needs to be done. It was interesting to discover that the maintenance of this area is NOT in the outsourced contract, so no one had taken responsibility for looking after this area. This probably accounts for the reason why, despite requests, maintenance of certain areas just doesn’t appear to happen. We are aware the Cabinet Members are looking carefully at the contracts they have inherited to establish where such gaps exist. We’re picking up that there are far too many gaps like this and we just don’t have the officer capacity (due to so many cuts) to deal with ourselves, so it just tends to get left, and that’s why it ends up looking a mess.
Parks
Sadly, our Parks Manager is leaving next month. We were without one for around six months so a backlog of work accumulated which he has been attempting to get through. To be honest we’re now concerned that once again our Parks will go backwards as we won’t have an officer in charge. We have suggested we agree protocols so that willing residents can start to take on work themselves, where appropriate to do so.
Garden in Bloom
It was lovely viewing the gardens nominated for the Garden In Bloom Award.
We had well over 30 nominations. The winner was Julie Blackwell and runner up was Patricia Lawrence.
We have personally spoken to each resident who entered handing them their certificate thanking them for making our neighbourhood more attractive. PS It’s one of the best parts of being a Councillor!
Full Council Meeting
Both of us contributed to this meeting held in July, Alison seconding the Motion to hold another governance review on creating a Windsor Town Council, and Helen proposing that all meetings be more open and transparent. Both Motions were passed unanimously.
Windsor Town Forum
We held the Windsor Town Forum in person at York House in July. We had about 20 residents in attendance. Alison chaired the meeting. Paul Roach, Town Centre manager gave us an update and we also discussed Highways and Grass cutting. Please don’t forget the next meeting is Tuesday 19th September – York House, Windsor at 6.30pm and it’s also on YouTube or you can join by Zoom if you want to participate. We prefer you to be there in person if possible as we want it to be as interactive as possible. The agenda for the next meeting can be found here some time in the next few days.
Vale Road Cemetery
We’ve had problems with fly-tipping from May 2022. It’s taken so many emails and chasing by Helen to get it removed but 15 months later got there. We have asked for a review why the systems just didn’t work so that it won’t happen again to anyone. Tivoli have been late in removing piles of debris as they have concentrated on grass cutting etc. We’re sure you’ll agree that grass cutting leaves a lot to be desired, but here again the specifications in the outsourced contract don’t require anything better.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Helen hasn’t met with any more businesses yet. In June she met with the Crown Estate (Windsor Great Park). She is going to initially concentrate on Windsor businesses and is exploring recommendations and leads. She continues to work with Centrica who are offering more and more volunteering time linking staff with organisations further afield than Windsor. LEGOLAND have agreed to sponsor Dedworth Library’s Sunday opening for the third year. She continues to work with Keeler re the flower beds at the entrance to Perrycroft, but officer time is limited to devote to this initiative, which is causing delays.
Reports to RBWM
Over the two months we have completed some 80 ReportIt items to RBWM. The App – Fix My Street makes it easier to log things. When these are not completed within a reasonable time frame we are able to escalate them.
Alison was particularly pleased to see two road signs replaced in Dedworth Drive and Duncroft over the last month. It’s about time as they were reported in February. We will continue to push for urgent things to be done.
Smiths Lane
In August the raised zebra crossing was installed outside Dedworth Middle/First/Library and the stretch of road from there to the Maidenhead Road should have been resurfaced during the last week of August. A few days before, Helen noticed that no diversion roads had been noted on the one.network website so asked the contact, Volker the contractor delivering. She was told the job would be rescheduled for October half term. She reported this on social media. To her surprise the weekly highways updated circulated to councillors late on Fridays showed this job still taking place. Despite her best efforts over the bank holiday weekend to seek clarity from RBWM, she failed to track anyone down. She therefore visited CDE residents in Smiths Lane and told them it may or may not be starting but in any case to ensure their cars were off the road. She observed that the yellow advance warning A boards had been removed. On Tuesday buses were not using Smiths Lane so residents were waiting in vain for their bus. She has since received an apology from Volker explaining that they had communicated with everyone, but has challenged their claim that they had informed residents and other road users of these changes. She awaits a response!
The photo shows before and after.
Social Media
Both of us are active on social media bringing to your attention matters we think you’re interested in. Do let us know if we’re on the right track.
Abri Housing Association
By far the majority of time is taken up with dealing with Abri when they have failed to deliver a quality service to our residents. It is incredibly frustrating when systems fail and things are just not done right first time. Local Councillors have a meeting with Abri Operations Director in September following on from the meeting that we both had a couple of months back. We had hoped as a result of that meeting processes would change but from we and residents stand it appears not.
Windsor Homeless Project
Together with Cllr Helen Taylor (Champion for Social Housing) we met with the Manager from the Windsor Homeless Project. This was to give us a better understanding of the wide range of services they offer. As well as supporting rough sleepers they also support the homeless and those about to become homeless. They know who in the Council they need to approach for what. We are now better equipped to advise residents and signpost to the right place for the fastest results. We had a tour round the Alma Road development which will bring the Windsor Homeless Project, Windsor Foodshare and Street Angels all under one roof. To find out more click here.
Consultations
Whilst there are no consultations coming up that we can see you may be interested in the results of the consultation on the junction of Maidenhead Road, Mill Lane and Parsonage Lane. Although not in our Ward this is a junction abutting it and used by many of our residents.
Windsor & Eton FC
Alison has been supporting our new football team who play at Stag Meadow, which isn’t in our ward but in neighbouring Clewer East. She has attended two home and one away game so far – one 0-0 draw, a 6-0 win at home and 5-0 win away in Sandhurst. It’s been so great to see such a community feel, so many young players making it into the first team and see so many familiar faces in the crowd. The next home game is 2pm on Saturday 2nd September at Stag Meadow – it’s free to attend so maybe you’ll see Alison there.
Resident Issues
Lack of Food, Neighbour’s overgrown gardens, Social housing repairs, Homelessness, victimisation, grass cutting, fly-tipping, anti-social behaviour, size of outbuildings, overgrown hedges on pathways, planning / building regulation issues.
Meetings we have attended
Plastic Free Windsor, Age Concern, Transformation and Community Service Lead x 2, West Windsor Forum, Centrica Corporate Volunteering Manager x 2, Community Land Trust, Abri, PCSO’s, West Windsor Muslim Association, Cemeteries Manager, Consultation event at Old Court, Cabinet Member for Communities and Leisure, No 22 AGM, Centrica BBQ, WAM Get Involved, Age Concern Summer Fair, Autism Awareness, Windsor Town Forum, LEGOLAND, Council meeting, WMA with Age Concern, Age UK and Alzheimer’s Dementia Support, Safe places RBWM, Officers and Members relationship, Cabinet, Windsor Homeless Project. Thank you Party, Independent Group Meeting, TVP Neighbourhood Inspector, Berkshire Community Foundation and RBWM Volunteering Champion, Sustainability Supplementary Planning Document, Economic Vision with Leader, Abri Independent Living Regional Manager, Meeting Deputy Monitoring Officer and Chief Executive, Volunteering Champion, Anti-Social Co-ordinator Community Safety, Abri ASB Officer, RBWM Community Team, Abri re Sawyers Close bin collections, Planning meetings, New Windsor Community Association, RBWM business networking session, Community Engagement Programme – next steps, RBWM Lottery, Meeting about a new Repair Café in Windsor.