Monday 24th June
I wanted to get a letter to the Conservative lead on finance, Cllr Hilton and Cllr Rayner about the budget “CY27 Dedworth Manor-Community Café 250k” to invite them to form a cross party group on the decision making around the ideas. I offered, they knocked it back but hey, at least I asked…
Also created a list of local journalists on Twitter for speed of use… they seem to like Twitter, I tend to find it irritating! Some local councillors use it more than others 😉
Evening was Rotary handover where the President, Senior Vice & Junior Vice Presidents take on their new roles… I’m now Senior Vice President of Windsor & Eton Rotary Club.
Tuesday 25th June
There has been a great deal of worry for local residents that after Squires closed there was lots of talk of Wyevales closing in October. Well I got an email through from Wates, who own the land that Wyevale sits on, which said…
Following our meeting and your subsequent email the following is a quote on behalf of Wates Developments:
‘After a meeting with WWRA, Wates has confirmed that Wyevale is at present occupying the Windsor site on a rent free basis with a flexible notice period. This is enabling Wyevale to maintain continuity of employment and occupancy of the site, including facilities such as a coffee shop. In the coming years, a more certain future solution is necessary. Wates is committed to constructive engagement with local community groups and key stakeholders in the formation of future proposals to meet local needs within the HA11 proposed housing development allocation.’
Just waiting to hear about some other bits and pieces before I make more noise about this but I did pass a copy of the above to local media at the full council meeting.
The first full council meeting of the new members…
Top of the tree on this was about declaring a Climate Change EMERGENCY, see the agenda here.
An emergency to the Conservatives is to implement solutions to see Net Zero Carbon in the RBWM by 2050! So the first motion of the day was to adjust that 2050, “way out there, don’t worry about it” date to 2030 and the opposition came with some great responses.
Best thing to do, make up your own mind, who came with the better arguments, listen to the debate for yourself… from 30 mins to 90 mins of this 3 hour recording of the meeting. 40:40 were my first words in council!
There were a bunch of questions, see agenda, of which mine was one. Dealing with finance, I’m pretty sure the question asked and the response given related to different projects, there were two lines of code that have £350k set against them, one for this year, one for last… anyway, I’ll await Cllr Hilton’s written update… you can hear my questions at 2:28:00…
As well as questions, there are motions which the council vote on and the Conservatives had decided they were going to win each and every one of them… would be nice if they voted with their conscience, not simply as told!
Motion on the planned new multi story car park in Maidenhead… the reason they lost the Oldfield ward to Helen Taylor of tBf and they still couldn’t see a way to put the car park elsewhere! Underlining their serious lack of ability to listen to others… this needs to change or they will loose all the seats at future elections, why can’t they see this?
Motion on giving the homeless people a permanent site… can’t have that, not in my back yard! I do like Cllr Baldwin Lib Dem’s style of presentation based on himself 😉
Then a very important motion for the military in Windsor…
10 c) By Councillor Knowles
This council will support, facilitate and promote an Armed Forces day event on Armed Forces day 2020.
They couldn’t event let a old soldier have his day… Cllr Rayner had to jump in and change the motion, adding the word “continue” in, implying there was already an Armed Forces Day celebration. Neil is deaf, so cannot hear properly when people start shouting and the Conservatives did, it seems to be part of their being… disgraceful behaviour and it resulted in Cllr Knowles not allowing Cllr Rayners change which the Conservatives voted through, hijacking his motion.
It would be nice, after the Mayor saw for herself the extent of this year’s Armed Forces Day celebrations in Alexander Gardens, if she could persuade Cllr Rayner to find a way of handing this Motion back to Neil to progress. That would demonstrate to the many armed forces personnel and their families in Windsor that they are willing to compromise for the benefit of the wider community.
Hear it here from around 3:33:00 >>>
Wednesday 26th June
I had a meeting to talk about roads and pavements with the Highways team, Ben Smith and Vikki Roberts. I learned we have somewhere in the region of 500 miles of road in the borough and the officers have around £2m to spend on general improvements and £3m to spend on instant repairs, pot holes and the like. Doing a full job of removing the old and laying brand new roads and pavements costs around £20 per square metre and a quick resurface costs just £5 per square metre.
It’s good to meet with the experts who know what’s what, hopefully under an Independent RBWM council we will be able to give them more money and ensure that over say a 20 year period, all roads in the borough are not just brought up to scratch but go beyond, way beyond.
Mate of mine lives on a cul-de-sac which has little traffic so has never been resurfaced, just tweaked here and there. Would be nice to see his road and many like it, shining like a diamond!
I then had a meeting with Rob Stubbs about finance and the “CY27 Dedworth Manor-Community Café 250k” to ensure I am clear on the process of securing this money for the local community. I have been assured that as long as it wipes its own noise moving forward then there should be no problems.
Come on down 6pm 9th July Go Gos, Racecourse Marina >>>
Thursday 27th June
I had some cards for my surgery so was able to pass them around at Wyevales. Met with a local chap who simply wanted to say hello… come on down for my next surgery 3pm, 8th July.
Then we had the “alternative” Windsor Town Forum at The Queen Charlotte pub and the topic of Windsor having its own town council was brought up. Richard Endacott has submitted a petition…
PLEASE SIGN if you live in Windsor >>>
Crazy that Windsor generates millions of tourist pounds for RBWM and most of that ends up getting spent on redeveloping Maidenhead??? This needs addressing and a proper town council is the start…
Friday 28th June
Woke up early so reviewed the video we shot for our election. One of the Ed fans has been posting up every orifice available on Facebook a set of questions and I just wanted to ensure complete clarity about what we promised before we respond. So I listened, typed up a transcript, updated the Youtube subtitles and re-published for the world to see. I’ll be taking the words and adding in the questions so there is complete clarity and transparency… I’ll not post up all the same orifices, I’ll be more grown up about it… well I’ll try but it can be difficult when faced with such abuse to know what to do!
Got a call from Francis Batt, local journalist, earlier in the week saying Cllr Dudley had asked the Mayor to write a letter about council meeting rules on attire… will be a short letter as there are none… I went in jeans, I’m so rad! Wrote this…
Boris’ Dead Cats – how many do RBWM Conservatives’ need?
Saturday 29th June
Rotary Mid-Summer Fayre… duck race day… here are a selection of pictures and videos for your enjoyment.
Junior thanks George for popping along for the day, “how philanthropic” one charity stall holder said when I called him over “Clooney” to show her the way 😉
Thank you.
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