Ben Smith, Head of Commissioning, Communities will give a verbal update to the Forum.

Ben Smith, Head of Commissioning – Communities, went through the changes at the station which included the paved area, avenue of trees, circulatory system for drop/pick up, disabled parking, taxi parking and the more pedestrian-friendly area. The overflow for the taxi rank would be on Shoppenhangers Road. Taxi parking and the forecourt management would be done by GWR and Network Rail.

Ben Smith reported that the idea of the new layout of the station forecourt was to reduce vehicles on the forecourt and this had been funded by RBWM and the local enterprise partnership.

This was being published at the Maidenhead Town Forum and there was information published to the RBWN website. It was also being tweeted on social media. There would be further communication in October. Currently the Communications were about Highways, traffic and change of junction at Queen Street.

The Chairman asked if the station forecourt could be extended, because with the arrival of Crossrrail the flow of people was on the increase and would therefore mean more congestion in order to have room to drop off people with major mobility issues. Ben Smith offered to take this back to the design team.

Councillor Singh highlighted that with excellent public transport and a lot more buses at other stations, the car parking would be less of an issue. Could the new station handle the capacity increase. Ben Smith informed the Forum that a lot of forecasting had taken place and there had been a net increase in 250 additional spaces for cycle parking. The predictions for pedestrians were 4.5 million rail-users in 2016, 5.5 million in 2020 and over 8 million in 2039 when both lines were completed.

The bus services were currently detached from the rail station but these would all be joined up making it more viable for people to use.

Councillor Coppinger encouraged the Forum to think of a new world when thinking of Maidenhead in the future and to consider pedestrians over the next 20-30 years, who would move away from using the car every day. Therefore, there was a need to provide better facilities for cycle-users. The work at Maidenhead station forecourt was planning for that new future.

The Chairman reminded Officers and Members that it was crucial to keep people with disabilities in mind as this was not going to change in the future.

Liz Kelsall informed the Forum that whilst this was an admirable plan to the west of the borough there were only two buses a day, no footpaths and cycle paths so the infrastructure was not there to ensure connectivity with the town centre. Ben Smith informed the Forum that new Maidenhead would be all synced and more bus services and more parking on Stafferton Way, Vicus Way and Braywick. Liz Kelsall suggested having a bus shelter and bus service from one of these car parks especially for vulnerable people.

ACTION: Ben Smith to explore possibility of installing a bus shelter and to take up discussions on connectivity with the west of the borough.