To consider the Matters arising below:

 

5.1	Changing Places	Lee Ovens
5.2	River Street Car Park, Windsor	Neil Walter
5.3	Nicholsons Car Park	Neil Walter
5.4	Local Access Forum	Lisa Hughes
5.5	Maidenhead Town Centre Regeneration (including Shopmobility relocation and Blue Badge (disabled) parking)	Councillor Wilson
5.6	Maidenhead Station/Crossrail	Gordon Oliver
5.7	St Marks/Courthouse Road junction	Councillor Hollingsworth
5.8	Planning Applications	Angela Clark

 

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4.1 Changing Places

 

Lee Ovens, Magnet Leisure Centre Manager, informed the Forum that currently the Magnet Leisure Centre has got disabled facilities for changing including a changing bed and a hoist. There is also a pool side hoist available too.

 

The proposals for the new leisure facilities were still being finalised. The architects had been selected. The Forum were pleased that they could advise the council of what was required for changing places facilities.

 

Dominic Manley advised the forum that he regularly used the facilities at the Windsor leisure centre and the Changing Places room has no toilet. Separately from that room there is a disabled toilet which has a  toilet and shower but no hoist or fold down bench. Neither room has all of the facilities to satisfy the definition of a Changing Places toilet'

 

Lisa Hughes informed the Forum that there were specific guidelines that were required to be followed and it seemed like Windsor Leisure Centre had not followed them. The Magnet Leisure Centre did not follow the guidelines. Lisa Hughes would go and check the Cox Green Leisure centre and report back to the Forum. Lisa Hughes informed the Forum that other boroughs such as Bracknell, Wokingham and Reading already had excellent changing places facilities available.

 

Changing places are best located at main attractions in the borough, shopping centres, leisure centres and supermarkets. These were some of the suggested hubs. Currently there are 992 changing places in the UK and these were increasing quickly.

 

Further improvements were required to make the borough more disabled friendly, especially with the Magnet Leisure Centre relocating to Braywick Park.

 

ACTION: Lisa Hughes to provide a list of what other boroughs have in place to Councillor Love.

 

ACTION: Lisa Hughes to report back to Forum of the facilities at Cox Green Leisure Centre.

 

ACTION: Councillor Love to email Kevin Mist to highlight the need for a changing place at the new leisure centre.

 

ACTION: Invite Kevin Mist to the next Forum

 

 

4.2 River Street Car Park

 

Neil Walter, Parking Principal, informed the Forum that he had received funding for Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) for the River Street Car Park. There was a twelve week lead time for this to be in place. Windsor Library car park was on hold as many changes were taking place.

 

4.3 Nicholsons Car Park

 

Neil Walter, Parking Principal, reported to the Forum that Capital funds have been found to provide an automatic barrier to be placed at the exit from ShopMobility in Nicholsons car park. The barrier had been ordered at the end of May 2017 and would be in place by September 2017. Neil Walter confirmed that ShopMobility members could be informed.

 

The Chairman asked how long Nicholsons car park was going to be in use. Neil Walter informed the Forum that a new car park would be in place by September/November 2019, there was a 18 month lead time. The current Nicholsons car park would close by the end of 2017. The new car park would have 1200/1500 car parking spaces, including 80 blue badge bays. ShopMobility would remain in the car park, however, the location of it was still under discussion. Peter Haley was disappointed that People-to-Places had not been involved in the discussions. Neil Walter would inform Peter Haley of future meetings. The Forum would like to see plans when they were publically available.

 

ACTION: Neil Walter to invite Peter Haley to future car park meetings.

 

4.4 Local Access Forum

 

Lisa Hughes gave the Forum some background on the Local Access Forum. The Local Access Forum met twice a year and all large upcoming planning applications were discussed by Victoria Gibson. This discussion included the links to access and pathways. The Chairman thanked Lisa Hughes for all the updates provided. Lisa Hughes informed the Forum that she would be attending a conference in Birmingham and would report back at the next Forum.

 

ACTION: Lisa Hughes to continue surveying planning application and report back to Forum.

 

ACTION: Lisa Hughes to report back after the Birmingham Conference.

 

4.5 Maidenhead Town Centre Regeneration

 

Councillor Wilson informed the Forum that the parking paper was currently part II and would be bought into part I soon. Peter Haley of People to Places highlighted that he needed to know soon so that they could inform all staff and volunteers and Members of the People to Places.

 

Councillor Love also highlighted that the parking issues were also a concern for residents and retainers, they felt the timeline was not sufficient and it would be useful to have graphical representation to show clearly what was being lost and what was being gained.

 

The Chairman reminded all that disabled car parking spaces needed to be considered with all new developments.

 

ACTION: Invite Councillor Wilson to the next Forum to provide an update on the Maidenhead Town Centre Regeneration.

 

4.6 Maidenhead Station/CrossRail

 

Gordon Oliver, Principal Transport Policy Officer, informed the Forum that the plans were still being discussed. The scheme for the Maidenhead Station forecourt had been agreed, the foot flow between the station and the town centre was still being discussed. The aim was to have something in place by July 2017.

 

ACTION: Invite Gordon Oliver to the next meeting to update the Forum.

 

4.7 St Marks/Courthouse Road Junction

 

Since Councillor Hollingsworth was no longer a Conservative Group Member and a Member of the Access Advisory Forum, Councillor Love offered to take over the item.

 

Councillor Love went over the concerns of residents; the double yellow lines were not really helping as if a traffic warden was present, the vehicles could be moved within five minutes. Traffic lights could be dangerous on the junction with St Marks Road as at the present situation. The car garage was causing the issues by parking cars all along the main road. Planning were checking to see how many cars the garage could have at one time. There was also an overflow from the hospital.

 

ACTION: Keep item on Forum Agenda

 

4.8 Planning Applications

 

The Chairman informed the Forum that Lisa Hughes trails through all planning applications, considering disabled access and then sending them to Lynne Penn. Lynne Penn has now moved on to another role in the council. Councillor Wilson suggested that Lisa Hughes should now contact the planning officer. It would be useful to send to Planning.Maidenhead@RBWM.gov.uk

 

Councillor Wilson informed the Forum that a supplementary planning document was being produced. It was still in its early stages. Councillor Wilson confirmed that the Forum’s comments on it would be welcomed.

 

Lisa Hughes requested that the Forum be added to the notification list for all planning applications.

 

ACTION: Councillor Wilson to arrange for the supplementary document to be sent to the Forum.

 

ACTION: Councillor Wilson to advise Planning to add the Forum to the planning application notification list.

 

The Chairman commented on the planning application for the new Hindu community centre and used it as an example of how important both wheelchair access and emergency evacuation are when considering planning applications in public places.

 

Councillor Wilson requested that all comments be sent to the Maidenhead Planning email and these would be forwarded to the appropriate officer.

 

The Chairman, referring to the recent events, reminded Members that the type of cladding on all buildings need to be considered.