To receive an update on parking.

(This item was discussed before Item 3 – Minutes)

Neil Walter, Parking Enforcement Manager, gave a brief overview of the situation with parking in Maidenhead. He reported that daily and general parking in Maidenhead has seen a recovery in 2022 with the last two or three months experiencing similar pre-Covid levels of daily parking.

Despite this, there was the issue that business and office-based companies were not returning to Maidenhead and season tickets remained extremely low. While he was not predicting a significant increase in this, Neil Walter mentioned that he had recently contacted one of the managing companies in one of the office buildings in Maidenhead about taking up the 50 spaces that they had on lease since August 2021. From this, Neil Walter expected that they were preparing to return to Maidenhead, which may encourage other companies to follow suit.

On general parking, Neil Walters explained that he, Councillor Jones and some highways officers investigated car parks a few months ago. While it had been ordered, the work on reviewing on-street parking along a number of roads in Maidenhead had not started yet, which resulted in potentially 15 new on-street parking bays being installed. He added that he was informed that those would be installed within the next four to six weeks.

In addition, Parking Enforcement were seeking to re-line certain areas around the Broadway development site, where vehicles were sighted parking along the hoardings, as well as the re-structuring of the limited waiting parking along Queen Street alongside relining in other areas.

Neil Walter also reported that Nicholson’s multi-storey car park was still closed at the moment. He conveyed that 63% of the normal usage of Nicholson’s car park at this time of year being transferred to other car parks mainly Hine’s Meadow and Grove Road car parks. Hine’s Meadow car park had seen a 47% increase in January and February of 2023 with Grove Road car park experiencing a 16% increase, with most of these expected to be caused by residents who usually used Nicholson’s.

While parking enforcement remained quite high, there was a high level of non-compliance with parking restrictions, namely parking on double-yellow lines in the evening. In response, Neil Walter reported, additional evening patrols had been commissioned to mitigate this, particularly around the Town Centre.

On the Magnet Leisure Centre, Neil Walter reported that the majority of the parking there had been closed except for a small area of parking outside the Wilderness Centre and the new area of parking at the Tenpin bowling site, which was being used by staff from Wilderness Centre, Commonwealth War Graves and RBWM. In spite of this, there was no daily parking at this car park at the moment.

Neil Walter then explained that he was looking to change some parking restrictions around the roads near the old Magnet site along Holmanleaze and Kennet Road to increase some short stay parking in those areas.

Neil Walter also informed that Vicus Way opened in late 2022, mainly being used by Town Centre workers and other people for electric vehicle charging points. In Braywick, more people were using the car park in this area, likely to walk or cycle to the Town Centre.

On the whole, the region had about a thousand to 1,100 available spaces on any given day, mainly long-stay parking spaces. While short stay parking areas were very popular, this may be partly lost in relation to shop mobility units from Nicholson’s multi-storey potentially moving to West Street as was the case with the demolition of Nicholson's.

Councillor Jones asked if there could be better signage around the footpath which ran from the Vicus Way car park to the rear of Fotherby Court, claiming that many residents did not know that the footpath existed. Neil Walter responded that he could discuss this with colleagues at the Highways Team.

ACTION: Neil Walter raise to the Highways Team on the signage around the footpath between Vicus Way car park and Fotherby Court.

Councillor Singh raised a couple of questions. He stated that residents and businesses had raised concerns regarding the closure of Broadway car park. He requested to see the report regarding the safety and repair works. He also asked about the process of the car park being demolished.

Regarding the first question, Ian Brazier-Dubber, Managing Director of RBWM Property Company, informed that a report on the structural elements of the car park had been received and scrutinised. This was part of the research in the formulation of a paper around the car park, which would then provide options around the car park and how to properly deal with it. He suggested that he could discuss with Councillor Singh outside of the meeting on how the report could be shared.

On the demolition of a car park, Ian Brazier-Dubber explained that it was a procurement matter whereby an appropriate demolition contractor would be acquired. The Borough and contractor would then go through a procurement process to assess the costs, risks and timescales. Once this procurement process had concluded, a report would be formulated on the wider contextual issues of the car park as well as the outline of the demolition process.

Councillor Singh then asked if the report would be brought to Full Council. Ian Brazier-Dubber replied that he was uncertain at the moment. He explained that Cabinet and Full Council had approved a Broadway car park budget, and therefore the next steps were to ensure that the decisions to implement would go through the right processes.

Councillor Singh then asked if there was an option to bring the recently purchased car parking at Sienna Court and a nearby office block’s car park into public use as the redevelopment at Nicholson’s car park had been stalled. Ian Brazier-Dubber replied that as part of the consideration process around the Broadway car park, temporary alternative provisions would be investigated to provide provisional parking around the Town Centre, with Sienna Court being considered.

Councillor Singh then asked what the plans were for Waldeck House. Ian Brazier-Dubber replied that the process of demolition was underway.

Councillor Del Campo asked how Broadway car park ended up being in use despite being informed that it was not safe two or three years ago. Ian Brazier-Dubber replied that assessments were undertaken which identified Broadway car park as reaching critical point which led to it to be recently closed. Neil Walter added that Broadway car park had been monitored for a number of years, primarily relating to concrete spalling, and undertaking remedial works when required, such as boarding up and netting. He then explained that a significant amount of spalling had taken at the end of 2022, which meant that the car park had to be closed to remove the spalling and then undertake a survey on the depth of spalling throughout the rest of the car park.

Councillor Del Campo then asked if there were any statistics on the use of Vicus Way car park. Neil Walter answered that 587 vehicles had used Vicus Way car park in January and February 2023 with an average of 10 cars per day around a maximum of 30 vehicles per day.

Regarding concrete spalling, Councillor Haseler commented that Broadway car park had closed, and remained closed, under health and safety grounds, explaining that the winter season in 2022-23 had affected the concrete structure and caused it to spall. On the current administration, he then explained that the Council had not made any decisions yet due to officers needing to consider all the options available in relation to the car park. He then stated that a paper would be brought to Cabinet to agree officers’ recommendations and cautioned that the officers’ options should not be pre-empted before it had been written.

Councillor Singh asked for clarification from Councillor Haseler as the Cabinet Member for Parking. He stated that he recalled that two floors of Broadway car park had closed August 2022 on the grounds of anti-social teenagers throwing concrete off the top of the car park but claimed that he did not see any evidence about this. He asked for confirmation on this; or whether the reason was structural issues. Councillor Singh also commented that the use of Vicus Way car park was concerningly low (with roughly 10 a day) as the Council had spent £14 million on the car park. He asked what the response to this would be, whether encourage more residents to use Vicus Way car park or repurpose it.

Councillor Haseler affirmed that the top two floors were closed for anti-social behaviour rather than concrete spalling. He also stated that there needed to be more encouragement of residents to use Vicus Way car park.