Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Town Hall - Maidenhead

Contact: shilpa manek 

Items
No. Item

62.

Apologies For Absence

To receive any Apologies for Absence.

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Angela Clark, Greg Nelson and Councillor Charles Hollingsworth.

 

 

63.

Chairman's Introduction

The Chairman welcomes all to Forum.

Minutes:

Lisa Hughes, the Vice Chairman was chairing the Forum. Lisa Hughes welcomed the new Members to the Forum, these included Rachel Kinniburgh, RBWM Strategy Office, Claire Watcon, Picip and Dean Yorke, Maidenhead Community Centre.

 

Lisa Hughes informed the Forum that since the last Forum, the Chairman and Vice Chairman had carried out work in the following areas:

 

·         Analysis of Maidenhead Blue Badge Parking survey responses

·         Participation in the Planning Inspector’s hearing of the Borough Local Plan

·         Attending the July Licensing Panel

·         Meetings with Mencap Windsor (thank you to Liz for the introduction) Alzheimer Dementia Support, RBWM Senior Media Officer and the practice managers of Claremont and Cedars surgeries plus contact with Mencap Maidenhead and RNIB

Lisa Hughes informed the Forum of relevant news from the Government/Parliament. This included:

 

·         The Government is currently drafting guidance for local authorities on planning for the housing needs or older and disabled people. This is expected to be published imminently

·         The government’s Inclusive Transport Strategy was published in July and includes

o   The government’s actions for achieving equal access to transport for disabled people

o   A clear programme of monitoring and evaluation

o   A new governance framework for accountability

·         The Women & Equalities Committee has an inquiry on the enforcement of the Equality Act and is inviting written responses before 5th October

 

64.

Minutes Of The Last Meeting pdf icon PDF 84 KB

To agree the minutes of the last Forum.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting on 11 June 2018 were Unanimously Agreed. This was proposed by Liz Kelsall and seconded by Peter Haley.

 

65.

Matters Arising

4.1

Update on the Windsor Guildhall access audit and public meetings at the Guildhall.

TBC

4.2

AAF and Planning Applications

Lisa Hughes

4.3

Maidenhead Town Centre Regeneration

Barbara Richardson

4.4

St Marks/Courthouse Road Junction

Ben Smith Councillors Hollingsworth and Love

4.5

Raising the profile of AAF

Shilpa Manek

4.6

Taxi Licensing Update

Greg Nelson

4.7

Leisure Centres Update: Braywick/Oaks

Lisa Hughes

 

Minutes:

4.1 Maidenhead Town Centre Regeneration

 

Barbara Richardson, Managing Director, RBWM Property Company Ltd, updated the Forum on the Maidenhead Town Centre Regeneration. Barbara Richardson informed the Forum of the following points:

 

·         Several surface car parks would be removed and re-provided as permanent car parking somewhere else. The existing car parking would increase.

 

·         The four key sites included York Road, West Street, St Clouds Way and Reform Road. The order of work had changed and the York Road application had been submitted at the end of May 2018 and was due to be heard at the 26 September 2018 planning committee. The town hall car park would be lost early on but there would be several temporary car parks. The staff parking would be moved to another temporary car park and the team were also trying to move season ticket holders from the Hines Meadow car park to Stafferton Way car park to make more parking close to the town centre for shoppers and visitors to Maidenhead. This would all begin next month if the planning consent was given at the September planning committee. There would be eleven hundred more car parking spaces than now on completion of the project. Five percent spaces were allocated for blue badge spaces and this had been included in the planning application. The Nicolson’s car park currently had 734 spaces but on being demolished and rebuilt, there would be 1333 spaces. This report was due to be presented to Cabinet in September 2018, once it had been approved, an application would be submitted and tender would go out for a contractor.

 

·         Discussions had taken place with ShopMobility and it had been agreed that it would move to West Street before any demolition began, this was council controlled land so there would be no changes. There would be a disabled WC on the new ShopMobility site. The visitor/disabled car parking around the town hall would remain for now and blue badge parking would be moved to the Members car park. Barbara Richardson was asked if the toilet at ShopMobility would be a Changing Places toilet and she agreed to check and report back to the Forum.

 

ACTION: Barbara Richardson to check if toilet at ShopMobility would be a Changing Places facility.

 

The Vice Chairman, Lisa Hughes asked if there would be any blue badge parking at West St and was informed that there were currently 59 spaces at West Street car park and after all amendments had been made for ShopMobility, it would most probably be a blue badge car park only. The Forum highlighted that the route from West Street car park to the High Street had no dropped kerbs, has a steep gradient near the pedestrian underpass and the lighting was very poor making people feel vulnerable. Peter Haley informed the Forum that a site visit of West Street car park had been carried out and agreed that the kerbs were not dropped and the pavements were not wide enough. ShopMobility would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.

66.

Items

5.1

RBWM Officer Introduction

 

Rachel Kinniburgh

5.2

Borough Local Plan: Hearings

Lisa Hughes

 

5.3

Using Direct Payments to employ a PA

Lisa Hughes

 

Minutes:

5.1 RBWM Officer Introduction

 

Rachel Kinniburgh introduced herself to the Forum. Rachel Kinniburgh would now be the liaison officer between the Forum and the Council. Rachel Kinniburgh would liaise with officers for updates, reports and information. The Agenda would be set with Rachel Kinniburgh and Rachel would be present at all Forums. Rachel Kinniburgh could be contacted on Rachel.kinniburgh@rbwm.gov.uk

 

5.2 Borough Local Plan: Hearings

 

Lisa Hughes informed the Forum that the Chairman and the Vice Chairman had been invited to participate on the first day of the Planning Inspectorates hearing of the Borough Local Plan at the end of June.

 

The session examined the Legal Soundness and Compliance of the submitted plan and heard representations from senior RBWM officers and legal advisors plus as well as parties such as parish councils, neighbourhood planning groups, landowners and the AAF.

 

The AAF communicated the following points to the Planning Inspector:

 

·         The current numbers of residents with disabilities and forecast in 2033;

·         The disconnect between the number of residents with disabilities and proposed level of accessible housing in the BLP;

·         The lack of AAF involvement in the development of the BLP;

·         Concerns about whether the amount of accessible housing proposed in Housing Policy HO2 was supported by robust evidence (as required);

·         The drastic change in accessible housing proposed in policy HO2 between the version of the BLP produced in Dec 2016 and that in June 2017-

o   The Dec 2016 version included 5% of fully wheelchair accessible homes so by inference all homes to be habitable by PwD;

o   In the June 2017 version this had been changed (with no explanation) to 5% of homes to be habitable by PwD.

The Planning Inspector informed invitees that specific policies within the BLP would be examined in detail at the next set of hearings which were initially proposed to take place in September or October, after she had considered the answers and information provided by RBWM to her questions arising from the June hearings.

 

As Forum members may be aware the RBWM Planning advised the Planning Inspector that they would miss the 17th August deadline of responding to her questions. They expect to be able to respond by the end of October. This has a knock-on effect on the next stage of hearings.

 

The Forum discussed planning guidance about accessible housing and whether assisted living had been discussed or considered.

 

5.3 Using Direct Payments to employ a PA

 

The clerk had circulated information provided by Vernon Nosal in June 2018. If any The clerk had circulated information provided by Vernon Nosal in June 2018. If any members had any questions, could they send them to Lisa Hughes and Angela Clark by 30 September 2018. The questions would be collated and sent to Vernon Nosal and he would be invited to the next Forum.

 

Angela Clark had a question about who would replace NuWay as RBWM had stopped contracting with them. They had acted as intermediaries for PAs and clients, checking skills and DBS,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.

67.

Date Of The Next Meeting

Forum to note dates of future meetings:

 

Monday 26 November 2018

 

Monday 25 March 2019

Minutes:

The Forum Members noted the date of the next Forum as 26 November 2018.