To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Gilmore.

To receive any Declarations of Interest.

Cllr Rayner -  Councillor Rayner declared a personal interest as he is a Parish Councillor for Horton & Wraysbury, a local resident and a businessman in the Royal Borough. He had attended Panel to discuss bridge works in Wraysbury and the decriminalisation and enforcement works in the Borough.

Cllr Sharma – Declared a personal interest as he worked for First Group and there were some things in the budget report that may effect his employer.

To confirm the Part I Minutes of the previous meeting.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting of the Windsor Urban Development Control Panel held on 25 November 2015 be approved.

To Consider the above report.

The Chairman agreed to let Mr Henry Perez, Mr Graham Cribbin and Councillor Colin Rayner address the Panel regarding works required to a footbridge at Wraysbury train station. The main points raised by Mr Cribbin included:

Ø  He was a resident of Wraysbury and lived near the High Street.

Ø  He was one of the founders of the Wraysbury Speedwatch Group.

Ø  There were now more than 250 residents in the group.

Ø  The main concern was Wraysbury footbridge.

Ø  A meeting was organised with Railtrack and the Borough.

Ø  Mr cribbin and Mr Perez conducted a walk through of the footbridge and no party felt safe during the walkthrough.

Ø  Wheelchairs and buggies were unable to use the footbridge.

Ø  Mr Cribbin had spoken to the railways who said they could raise the platform.

Ø  Four meetings had taken place with stakeholders.

Ø  £85,000 was needed to make the bridge safe for pedestrians.

Ø  All parties had agreed the works were needed immediately.

The main points raised by Mr Perez included:

Ø  The footbridge was clearly not safe.

Ø  The Borough approved works for Sunnymeads and Warysbury bridges but, the works for Wraysbury footbridge were put on hold.

Ø  The population of the local area had increased and so had the footfall on the bridge.

Ø  A lot of local people worked from home and had clients visit them; there were also two sports grounds in the area which increased pedestrian numbers.

Ø  Nothing to date had been done to make the bridge any safer.

Ø  2,250 people had signed their petition to get the work to commence immediately.

Ø  Pedestrians were sharing the road with cars.

Ø  There was a high rate of speeding traffic along that stretch of road.

Ø  The situation contravened the Highway Code and fails good practice.

Ø  The proposal for the bridge works were produced by the Borough.

Ø  The works were fully supported by Cllr Colin Rayner.

Ø  All local Councillors had signed the petition.

Ø  Mr Perez respectfully requested funding be made available to commence the works to the footbridge.

The main points raised by Councillor Colin Rayner included:

Ø  Cllr Rayner fully supported the residents’ actions.

Ø  Officers time had been allocated to get a plan draw up.

Ø  Budgets had been worked on for some six months.

Ø  He had attended the Budget Steering Group who had told him he needed to address the Highways, Transport & Environment Overview & Scrutiny Panel to plead the case of having funds allocated for the works.

Ø  He used the station regularly three times per week.

Ø  Cllr Rayner requested the Panel recommend to Cabinet to include funding for the footbridge project.

Ø  Wraysbury was a very close-knit community and the footbridge was a very important issue.

Councillor Sharma thanked Mr Cribbin, Mr Perez and Councillor Rayner for coming and addressing the Panel. He added that safety was taken very seriously by the Borough. There were signs stating the 30mph speed limit but  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.