To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Rayner.

To receive any declarations of interest

None received.

None.

Cabinet considered the report that recommended that Advantage Card holders were able to park free of charge for up to 3 hours in Royal Borough car parks from Monday 15th June to Sunday 12th July 2020.

The Lead Member for Pubic Protection and Parking informed Cabinet that the purpose of the report was to assist the recovery of our town centres and retail outlets.  Parking enforcement was recommencing as more people are traveling to work and furlough was being relaxed. There was a need to keep roads safe by enforcing yellow lines and allowing residents to be able to park near their homes.  The governments third phase of recovery was allowing more retail stores to open and there was a need to support residents being able to visit town centres. It was proposed that Advantage Card holders could display their cards on their dashboards for 3 hours free parking.  He believed that this was a realistic, beneficial and affordable move for the first month.

The Deputy Leader of the Council, Resident & Leisure Services, HR, IT, Legal, Performance Management & Windsor said that she supported the proposals as Windsor was an important shopping and tourism centre.  There was a need to support retail by shopping local and staying local, it was important to support businesses as part of our partnership with them.

The Lead Member for Transport and Infrastructure endorsed the paper as the right measures at the right time to stimulate residents and support business.  There would also be measures being put in place for roads and pavements to assist social distancing.

The Lead Member for Planning and Maidenhead reported that prior to C-19 there were signs of growth and development within Maidenhead and this would now continue, for example a few days ago there had been an application for the Nicholson’s Centre.

The Leader reiterated what had been said and informed that during these times we had to be flexible and act accordingly to support local businesses and hence the urgency of this report.  He believed that this was the best for residents.

Cllr Werner reported that he was supportive of plans to help residents  and business, however he did raise concerns of the financial viability and that it was only for 4 weeks.  He questioned if savings would have to be made to support the proposal and raised that the Section 151 officer did not support the report and asked if this brought her closer to issuing a Section 114 notice.

The Lead Member replied that they had been clear that this was for a 4 week period and that it was affordable and that if the opposition think it should be for a longer period he welcomed their plans to how it would be financed.  There was a balance between revenue and supporting our residents.

The Section 151 officer informed that she had not endorsed the paper as it had not yet been identified where the money to cover the costs would be coming from.  It had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4a