Agenda item

Town Managers Update.

To receive the above update.

Minutes:

Paul Roach, Town Manager stated he wanted to note the work carried out by Community Wardens in helping rough sleepers, he had also been working with them and a lot of work had also been done working with vulnerable adults.

 

The events programme had been released and the first event was pancake day; over £900 was raised and split between three charities which included the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice and More Than a Shelter.

 

Negotiations had been ongoing with American High School Marching Bands and approval had been sought to host 16 high school bands on the grass moat of the Castle and 16 school choirs to sing at the Windsor Parish Church. The event was due to begin on 9 June 2019 and would run until the end of July 2019. The Town Manager was formalising dates for the bandstand programme of events.

 

Windsor would host two sculpture trails. The first was from World Welfare Horses Charity and would be 10 miniature horses and would be linked to the Windsor Horse Show. They would be installed in April until the end of July 2019. The second sculpture trails would consist of lions and would be installed by the Windsor Lions around October 2019. Both of the trails would end in an auction and the money would go to charity. The Windsor Lions Sculpture Trail would include up to 60 lions across the whole of the Borough and they were still looking for suitable locations and were happy to receive suggestions.

 

Shop vacancies were running at approximately 5% but three new shops had opened including Sea Salt and House of Hyde. The national vacancy rate was approximately 9.9%.

 

There had been an increase in footfall to December 2018, up by 0.6% on last year. Businesses were facing challenges due to online shopping and the Town had to make sure what it offered was attractive and so they were looking at a number of retail specific events. The Town Manager had been working with both shopping centres and were looking at dedicated events in the Town. He added the fruit and veg market would begin again at the end of March 2019 and there had been discussions with a potential tenant on taking over O’Driscolls Fish Mongers but, the talks were unsuccessful and it was decided that that potential tenant would instead hold a stall two days a month selling wild fish in Peascod Street.

 

The Chairman stated he attended the Tourism Development Forum on 11 March 2019 and a representative from the Royal Household attended and confirmed they had seen a surge in visitors at the Castle and were expecting more visitors when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved to Windsor.

 

Claire Milne asked if Windsor had considered a Christmas Craft Market in Windsor as a lot of other historic towns had them. the Town Manager said it had been discussed over many years and there was about to be a tender document being sent out. there had been a couple of attempts over the years and there had been a small one. There were a number of events planned at Christmas but it was not possible to put a stall in front of a shop as there were some parts of Peascod Street that were too narrow and the stores did not want a stall right outside their shop for six weeks. There had been a German Market in the Royal Station but it had caused problems for retailers.

 

David Scott, Head of Communities, Partnerships and Enforcement confirmed York House would be reopening in April 2019. The Town Manager confirmed there had been no interest from potential tenants at the old Fenwicks site in Windsor Yards. Regular discussion about the unit took place but, nothing concrete had been forthcoming. The landlords were looking at a number of pop-up options for the site.

 

Helen Price asked why the Council were not successful in obtaining a Better High Street Fund bid. Councillor Dudley explained there were two phases of the fund and the second phase was better; officers felt it was better to go for the second phase as it was worth £25m for both Windsor and Maidenhead and the decision would be made in the next three months.

 

Susy Shearer said the police from outside the area were cycling down Peascod Street because the signage was too high and cyclists did not see it. The Chairman replied the signs were set at specific height and cyclises that cycled down that street would not follow signs and would be able to tell it was a pedestrianised area. It was only one officer that cycled down that street and so it was raised so they could be informed.

 

Councillor S. Rayner stated there were new business rates relief for businesses on the high street that would benefit if they applied for it.

 

The Chairman provided a brief update on the work of the Aviation Forum. He said there were no extra attendees at the last meeting despite raising it with the Windsor Town Forum in December. He stated a consultation had been published but the plans only showed the noise on individual runways and not the two runways at the same time so, Windsor would be in a corridor of noise. Another consultation was coming shortly around land mass. The Leader of the Council was at court on Monday 11 March 2019 to help start the legal challenge on the grounds of noise and air pollution.