Firstly, thank you to all the residents who signed the petition to try and encourage the RBWM Council to provide free parking for residents this Christmas and support retailers who are under immense pressure this year due to Covid and the governments handling of it.
Secondly, sorry for pushing out post after post on Facebook but we had a big target of 1500 to achieve in a short time frame 😉
The petition ended last night with 1642 signatures from residents!
Next steps are to use this to pressure the council to improve their initial offer of Sunday and Wed from 3pm to something more meaningful like 10am – 1pm every day till Christmas.
I had written to Cllr Cannon and forward the letter to the newspapers.
I anticipate Brian being asked to address the Full Council meeting on 15th December where I will put a motion asking for the above.
RBWM really has to pull it’s finger out and give the retailers the best chance of survival.
Dear Cllr Cannon,
Last night the Xmas Parking Petition smashed through the 1,500 and this morning sits at over 1,600 with more signing by the hour, such is the level of feeling with residents regarding this topic.
Please re-think your current offer to residents by making it VERY attractive for them to visit Windsor or Maidenhead to go shopping this Christmas.
Staines and Bracknell are the competition for Windsor. Both have so many more shops and parking is priced to attract visitors not detour them.
If you do not offer residents free parking during the day, even just for 3 hours, you are adding the final nails to the coffin of both Windsor & Maidenhead town centres. This time next year there might be a few coffee shops still clinging on as cyclists use them to warm up before making their return journey back whence they came but that will be all.
I took the attached photo at 12:30pm last Saturday at Victoria Street Car Park… on the 2ND LEVEL!
I would like you to share with all councillors the latest financial records for parking in RBWM across our car parks by return email as it’s all now digital so no need to wait months for figures, they are at your finger tips.
They will show the car parks are not being used and so therefore they have a CURRENT value of ZERO revenue for all intensive purposes and to pretend anything else is either naive or reckless.
Giving residents free parking from 10am to 3pm or just 10am while 1pm gives both the elderly and parents the chance to visit town and buy gifts for their children and families.
This will in turn offer much needed support to retailers who are down 70-80% on normal revenues. Christmas brings circa 30% of their annual revenues under normal circumstances and enables them to pay the crazy rents they have to pay in Windsor.
150,000 residents, 70,000 homes? Saying 50,000 families spending on average £500+ (£720 in 2018) on presents this Xmas, that’s £25,000,000+ which our retailers desperately need. If they can get their mitts on 20% they will be happy but currently they will be lucky to get 2%.
You need to announce a change of heart and that with £9m reserves, being in a mighty healthy financial position, you will be magnanimous and grant RBWM residents their wishes and hopefully it will be in time for residents to hear! It can take a few weeks for the news to disseminate through to them so presents can be bought at local retailers and enjoyed and appreciated this Christmas time.
I hope you can see your way to making it possible for this to happen.
Thank you.
Cllr Jon Davey
Clewer & Dedworth West
West Windsor Residents Association / Local Independents
Vice Chair of Infrastructure Overview & Scrutiny Panel
Cllr.Davey@rbwm.gov.uk
07717 820823
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