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Exciting new resident parking discount scheme approved
An exciting new resident parking discount scheme, offering one hour’s free parking in six popular car parks, was approved by the Royal Borough’s Cabinet yesterday evening (Thursday 16 December).
The scheme will allow residents to apply to get the discount at car parks in Alma Road and Alexandra Gardens in Windsor, Grove Road and West Street in Maidenhead, Horton Road in Datchet, and Meadow Lane in Eton.
We plan to be in a position to open applications from February 2022. Once applications have been approved, residents can activate the discounted sessions in their selected car parks from April 2022. Look out for more details in the new year on how to apply.
The introduction of the resident parking discount scheme makes the Royal Borough one of the only local authorities in England to offer such a scheme.
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Ground breaking takes place at major Maidenhead regeneration scheme
Ground has been broken this week for The Landing, marking the start of construction for this important regeneration scheme for Maidenhead.
The council is driving forwards the much-needed regeneration of Maidenhead town centre, and this ground-breaking is another major milestone, hot on the heels of our railway station forecourt revamp.
With £155m of private investment, The Landing will provide longer-term benefits including new homes, jobs and facilities that will enhance vibrancy of the town centre, support further major investment and boost the whole community.
Construction of phase one of The Landing is expected to complete in Q4 2024.
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Record schools Ofsted rating for Royal Borough – despite challenges of Covid
The proportion of the Royal Borough’s schools judged to be good or outstanding by Ofsted has risen further to a record 97 per cent – well above the national average of 86 per cent – despite the additional challenges of Covid.
Since Ofsted inspections resumed in September 2021, six schools have been inspected with two schools – Bisham Academy in Marlow and Eton Wick First School – both increasing their performance rating from requires improvement to good.
As a result, 64 of the 66 schools in the Royal Borough are currently judged to be good or outstanding, with 22 schools, or 33 per cent, considered outstanding. The proportion judged to be good or outstanding was 94 per cent prior to these latest inspections and 86 per cent back in 2017.
Top marks and huge credit to the many dedicated teaching staff, governors, parents and pupils themselves, as well as our schools teams at Achieving for Children, our children’s services partner.
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Stay Covid-safe this Christmas
With continued uncertainty over the Omicron variant, it's essential that we all continue to stay safe this Christmas.
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Getting your booster - Your GP or NHS will contact you when it's your turn to use the National Booking Service or call 119 to book your jab. If you're having trouble booking online, or getting through on the phone, please be patient and try again later. The NHS has switched to booked-only so that more people can be safely vaccinated in this short window of time
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Having trouble finding a Lateral Flow Test? - You can also collect them from us. You now need LFTs to test daily for seven days if you’re a contact of someone with Covid (Delta and Omicron) - even if you’re fully vaccinated. If you test positive, stay home & order a PCR test online. Also use a PCR test if you develop Covid symptoms
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How are we tackling Covid in the Royal Borough?- Next Monday (20 December) is the final meeting of the year of the Outbreak Engagement Board. The meeting starts at 2.30pm and is streamed live on our YouTube channel. As it's recorded, if you miss it you can always watch it later
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Christmas and New Year arrangements for the Royal Borough
As we look forward to Christmas and New Year, you can find the festive period opening hours for our libraries and customer contact services on our website.
You can also access information about revised bin collection days, Covid test collection and Christmas parking arrangements. While our customer services opening hours are different on some days, you can still apply, pay and report online at any time.
We’re running a mini #ChristmasAllWrappedUp communications campaign on our Facebook and Twitter channels over the festive period to advise of these arrangements and encourage people to continue to recycle their waste.
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The NHS is open for business across the Christmas and New Year break
Frimley Health and Care is advising patients not to leave it too late to order or collect repeat prescriptions over Christmas and New Year.
With the festive season soon upon us, please be aware that your local pharmacy or GP practice may only be open for a reduced period or closed over the bank holiday period (Saturday 25 – Tuesday 28 December and Saturday 1 to Monday 3 January). This means it is important that anyone with a long-term condition or needing regular medication is prepared by having enough medicine supplies to cover this period.
Visit the NHS website for details of local pharmacy opening times over the holiday season.
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Will you Plant a Tree for the Jubilee?
You could join in with the planting of 8,000 trees at Ockwells Park near Maidenhead this winter, as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy national initiative to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee next year.
This is a joint project between the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead and our charity partner Groundwork South. It aims to increase biodiversity within the park, by creating new scrub and woodland habitats that combine to form a wildlife corridor that runs for almost 2km alongside the M4 motorway.
You can lend the team a helping hand during the Family Tree Planting Day on Saturday 15 January. All are welcome to come along and plant trees any time between 11am and 3pm – join for as long or as little as you want.
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Royal Borough community spotlight
Here are just some of the upcoming community events in the Royal Borough:
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Traditional carol service - (6pm Sunday 19 December) - URC building, William Street, Windsor. Join Windsor Fellowship Church for a traditional carol service. More information is available on the Windsor Fellowship website
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St Mary’s Church Christmas services – (Sunday 12 – Saturday 25 December) - St Mary’s Church, Maidenhead. St Mary’s are hosting several services over the Christmas period including a carol service suitable for all ages and two Christingle services. For information, visit the St Mary’s website
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Santa's Christmas sleigh ride – (12.30pm Thursday 23 December) - Datchet. A horse drawn carriage sleigh, will tour Datchet carrying Santa and his two singing elves, stopping at ten locations on route. The elves will perform a song of cheer to well-wishers at each stop before journeying on. More information can be found on the Datchet Parish Council website
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Berkshire Women’s Institute - If you identify as female and enjoy friendship and learning new things then you might like to give your local Women’s Institute (WI) a try. There are 79 individual WI’s in Berkshire, some meet in the evenings, some in the afternoons. Enter your postcode on the WI website to find your local branch or contact the Berkshire WI secretary
If you have an upcoming not-for-profit community event or activity you’d like to promote in this newsletter simply send basic information about your event to [email protected] and it could be shared with over 19,000 local residents.
You just need to include a brief description, when and where it takes place, and a link to a website/social media page/contact where people can find out more.
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Get involved in local town forum meetings
If you’d like to have your say on issues affecting Maidenhead and Windsor towns, we want to hear from you.
Agendas are published a week in advance, so you can see what councillors will be discussing, and get involved if there’s a topic you’re interested in.
Your discussion suggestions will be added to a future agenda if appropriate.
The next Maidenhead Town Forum is on Tuesday 11 January and the next Windsor Town Forum is on Thursday 13 January.
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Merry Christmas from the Royal Borough
The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
This is our last issue of Residents’ Newsletter for 2021. The next edition will be published on Friday 14 January 2022.
In the meantime, please make sure you follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Nextdoor to stay up to date with the latest local news and updates.
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Have your say
We regularly hold consultations to get your views on proposals within the Royal Borough.
Responding to our consultations and giving your feedback is the best way to ensure your views are heard.
Our current consultations are:
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M4 closures
The M4 is due to be closed in both directions between Junctions 5 (Langley) and 6 (Slough) from today (Friday 17) until Monday 20 December. The closures will start after 8pm each evening and the motorway will reopen by 6am the following morning.
For details of council works on highways, visit our website. For full local roadwork details, including work by utility firms, please visit the One Network website.
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Keep in touch
Other accounts you may be interested in:
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