To consider the Panel’s Work Programme for the remainder of the municipal year.

To include consideration of items scheduled on the Cabinet Forward Plan.

Councillor Davey said that if the panel agreed that a certain subject matter needed to be scrutinised, then a scoping document could be completed in its entirety to ensure that no officer time was wasted. Emma Duncan Confirmed this

Councillor Davey then introduced a topic to his fellow panel members titled ‘Facelift 2022, Optimising Visitor First Impressions’. He outlined to the panel what this involved including a facelift of the Victoria Street car park and the Alexandra Gardens Coach Park. This would be to enhance resident experiences and visitors first impressions of the borough when arriving in Windsor, especially for the upcoming Jubilee Celebrations in June 2022.

The Chairman said that there was already a Jubilee Facelift Project ongoing and that she implored Councillor Davey to contact the Windsor Town Manager, Paul Roach to get an update on if these two named locations were being covered within this. She added that Councillor Cannon as the Lead Member for parking may also be a useful contact on this. The Chairman added that works were already planned for the Alexandra Gardens Coach Park and that these were planned to be complete before the Jubilee Celebrations in June 2022.

Andrew Durrant said that plans were underway for Alexandra Gardens Coach Park but admitted that further assessments were needed before work could commence. Some capital budget was being allocated towards this from the borough’s own funds. Victoria Street car park had seen increased cleaning regimes being implemented. Once having spoken to Paul Roach, a clearer picture on future plans with Victoria Street car park would be visible, and this would be shared with the panel if required.

Councillor Singh expressed frustration with the new process and the introduction of scoping documents. Emma Duncan outlined why the new process had been adopted and said that support was there for members in aiding them with producing a scoping document.

Councillor Singh outlined an idea that he had to be brought before the panel. This was in reference to the reflective stickers on bollards and road signs. He said that during the day they worked well, however due to them becoming dirty, they became slightly more ineffective at night-time. He asked if there was a cleaning routine in place for these signs and he asked for a review into how often these were cleaned.

The Chairman responded by stating that items had already been agreed by the panel as being important ones to discuss and produce scoping documents on. Councillor Singh was encouraged to produce a scoping document on this issue that he had raised and present it to the panel. Councillor Singh asked when this would come to a panel. The Chairman responded by stating that this depended on the urgency of the item and the speed in which the scoping document was produced.

Councillor Bateson asked if the bridge at Alexandra Gardens Coach Park was owned by the borough. Andrew Durrant confirmed that the borough held a 125-year lease on the bridge.

Councillor Bowden was allowed to speak by the Chairman as Ward Councillor for Eton and Castle. He stated that the relevant Councillors for the area were fully aware of the issues that he had raised, and work was underway with officers to see what could be done about them. Councillor Davey acknowledged this and said that it needed to be rectified.

Councillor Davey said that CIL was already being dealt with offline, and he suggested that the items that currently existed on the work programme should all be scrapped, with panel members individually bringing items to the panel to discuss, considering the new process being adopted. Emma Duncan clarified the new process to the panel and emphasised that if there was an immediate danger caused by something, then this should be reported directly to officers and should not come to an Overview and Scrutiny panel.

Councillor Haseler said that members needed to focus on separating scrutiny topics and regular casework. He added that the scoping document could be supported by some additional guidance to aid members in better identifying why a topic should be brought to a scrutiny panel. Emma Duncan confirmed that this would be possible and that she would explore this.

Councillor Singh expressed his frustration with the panel and stated that he and Councillor Davey were trying their hardest to bring items to the panel, however he claimed that they were being blocked out by the majority of the panel. He claimed that his serious issue that he had brought to the panel could have been dealt with by liaising with officers behind closed doors, however he felt that it should be discussed in public through the panel.

Councillor Clark, Lead member for Infrastructure, said that Councillor Singh had already presented his question on the reflective signs and bollards to Full Council, which would be debated in the days after the panel. He added that this was a resident question, which was already being dealt with by lead officers.

Councillor Singh replied by asking the Lead Member if there was a cleaning regime in place to clean these. The Lead Member replied by saying that further discussions on the matter would occur at Full Council.

The Clerk emphasised that the work programme had already been streamlined by the panel in a meeting offline in November, where the panel went through the work programme item by item and agreed to keep some items of high importance to residents and to disregard some that were not. Panel members were then given the opportunity to fill in scoping documents for these agreed items to ensure that work was put in motion, however this had not yet occurred, potentially due to the process still being reasonably new.

The Chairman thanked officers and panel members for their attendance.