to review the details of the Council’s role in the Royal Wedding.

Paul Roach, Windsor Town Manager gave a brief overview of the review carried out following the Royal Wedding. Members noted the following key points:

 

Ø  Ceremonial Events Project Group (CEPG) – Outline its role in delivering the Royal Weddingand Partners working on the project from November 2017.

Ø  Partners (TVP, Royal Household, Cabinet Office, Private Secretary, MET, Stations, Shopping Centres).

Ø  Key concerns - security, capacity of the town centre, length and location of procession and road network.

Ø  Consultations - Residents and Businesses - Web chat events 150 questions Business meeting and training - over 250 businesses and individuals attended briefings throughout April – Project Griffon Training.

Ø  Overall management - Over 2000 police officers, 1200 stewards, 140 Royal Borough Ambassadors, over 50 council staff.

Ø  The royal wedding stats:

·         120,000 visitors. (following review of camera footage and stewarding reports).

·         worldwide audience 2 billion 

·         4km of bunting including 1km designed by local schoolchildren and groups.

·         140 Royal Borough Ambassadors volunteered to help ensure visitors had a safe and enjoyable day.

·         Over 7km of crowd barriers used along the procession route.

·         68 catering units on the Long Walk and in Alexandra Gardens. Some units were  local businesses including  Daniels, Windsor Brewery, Once upon a bus and Buy Buttons (Guinness World Record) 

·         13 large screens delivered for visitors to watch the ceremony and procession.

·         746 extra toilets.

·         13 tonnes of waste collected by a team of 80 waste collectors from Veolia and Urbaser.

·         20,160 bottles of Buxton water handed out to visitors and staff.

·         45,000 passenger journeys on South Western Railway services and 22,000 on GWR.

·         100,000 pints of Windsor and Eton Brewery’s Harry and Meghan’s Windsor Knot sold nationally.

·         1,000 tonnes of material used to resurface town centre roads, covering the equivalent area of two football pitches.

 

·         Tactics used to maximise increased number of visitors to the town centre

o   Coordinate colour scheme of hanging baskets in the town centre

o   Main walking routes through key trading areas of the town centre – Windsor Yards, Peascod Street, St Leonards Road.

o   Information booklet provided information for visitors.

o   On street promotions in and around walking routes.

o   Support key marketing promotion and supporting press request with local businesses

 

Ø  Key RBWM Involvement

 

·         Bringing forward a budget of 2.6 million to ensure  Windsor Town Centre looked the part

o   Improved junctions

o   Chewing gum removal programme

o   Fixing key walkways and foot paths

o   Painting and washing down all street furniture

Others things 

o   Sales of Official merchandise still continuing – Over £3k sold.

o   Still handing out information booklet for the day and official top trumps.

o   Footfall has been boosted to up to 35% every week since the wedding.  Friday 18 saw increase of 143% increase and there was an increase of 82% on the day of the day of the wedding.

o   Some businesses saw increases for the week of upto 150% and some reporting their best ever sales since moving to Windsor

o   Top Trump  giveaway – still some available at the visitor centre

 

Not all sectors did well from the wedding fashion retailers saw reductions in sales of up to 75%

 

Ø  Benefits continuing

 

·         Key displays still in situ in the town centre Lego brick mosaic in Windsor Royal Shopping.

·         Selfie panel in Windsor Yards.

·         Bunting to remain in place for the rest of the summer

·         Planting schemes retained in key trading locations - St Leonards Road.

·         Increased promotional activity in the Town Centre and income generation for the town centre.

 

 

Quote of the day - elderly lady who was supported and assisted to her spot on the long walk who after returning home emailed to say she had had a wonderful day and “she will forever remember her day at the Royal Wedding, when the world looked at Windsor, and Windsor smiled back”

 

The Chairman stated it was a fantastic day and he thanked all those that were involved, Windsor was at its best with the world watching. Councillor Bhatti also congratulated all involved and asked the Town Manager how footfall was affected. The Town Manager responded Following the Fenwicks closure, it had been a bad summer in 2017 and there had been a big drop in footfall which had since been consistently negative. However, two weeks prior to the wedding, footfall rose by 143% on the Friday and 82% on the Saturday compared to the same time in 2017. There were 258,000 movements on Peascod Street which was the highest footfall ever counted in four years.

 

Since the wedding, the Town had been in positive footfall, up 32% in the previous week, there had also been 7 consecutive weeks of positive footfall which corresponded with what the traders had said. Some retail sectors did very well with them reporting the best ever weeks for a lot of stores. For others it was a slightly different picture and so the Town Manager was asking retailers to look at the weeks before the wedding and not just the actual day. He added the Visitor Information Centre were still selling official merchandise and leaflets were still being requested and taken home. There were also some packs of Top Trumps cards still available for free at the Information Centre.

 

There was also a Guinness World Record attempt by Busy Buttons to create the longest ever concertina wedding card and the Town was still waiting to hear if the Record attempt had been successful.

 

Councillor Bicknell stated it was always about the legacy and bringing people in to the Town. It would be interesting to see how many people were from the UK and abroad. Two billion people watched the wedding worldwide on television so there were a huge number of people coming to Windsor. The Town Manager stated broadcasters collated the watching figures but it was very hard to see where in the world people had travelled from. Councillor Bicknell stated people coming from abroad was new money being spent in the UK so he wanted to capture that moving picture.

 

Richard Endacott congratulated the Council for the work done towards the Royal Wedding but he noticed a larger number of visitors to the Town but he was concerned about the infrastructure such as car parking and getting access to the Town being difficult. There were a few parking machines that were out of order in carious car parks in the Borough which needed to be looked at. The Town Manager stated in the last few weeks there had been other significant events in the Town such as the dog show, the annual duck race and the triathlon, so at the Town’s peak, there should not be machines out of order. Councillor Bicknell stated the parking machines were being replaced and he wanted to know which machines were not working so they could be fixed within two hours. He knew there was not enough parking and there was a limit to how much parking could be offered as it was a medieval town with space at a premium. Richard Endacott responded the out of order parking machine was on the second floor of the Victoria Street car park.

 

v  Action – The Chairman to investigate if all the parking machines were working in the Victoria Street car park, and if, instruct the responsible team to repair them.

 

Councillor E. Wilson stated when the Borough bought the Windsor Improvement Plan forward with £2.6m funding, he noted there were things that would be good for Windsor residents after the weeding so, the investment serviced residents well. His only challenge was he felt there was a point on capitalising on the huge amount of goodwill from that day so he suggested that during the winter months, the Borough hold a photo exhibition in the Guildhall of the wedding and the Council donate all proceeds to charities nominated by Prince Harry and Ms. Markle.

 

v  Action – Councillor S. Rayner, as Lead Member, to organise the photo exhibition of the Royal Wedding.

 

Councillor S. Rayner stated over £500k had been spent on The Old Court to bring the building up to standard and it was now a space which had art, classes, cinema, bar and local groups using it and it had been a great success since Martin Denny Management had taken on the lease of the building. Helen Price stated that any proceeds from the art exhibition should be donated to Windsor charities. The Chairman agreed and also suggested the Mayors charity.

 

Helen Price stated the wedding was a great event but, there was another large wedding in October 2018 and two big funerals to be held in Windsor, she wanted to know what lessons there were to be learned. The Inspector stated she was unable to discuss any of the arrangements at that time but, nearer the time, details would be released.

 

Richard Endacott asked what the total cost to the tax payer was. The Chairman stated £2m was brought forward which was going to be spent on the Windsor Improvement Plan anyway. Councillor Bicknell stated there were still ongoing negotiations. It went so well, the residue money, if there was any that the Borough could not offset, was well worth it.