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'Be Water Aware' during Drowning Prevention Week


Drowning Prevention Week starts tomorrow and is one of the largest summer water safety campaigns across the UK and Ireland. We will be dedicating the next few months to our water safety campaign, 'Be Water Aware this summer'. 


Even though the Royal Borough is landlocked, there is the River Thames, the Jubilee River as well as private lakes and smaller bodies of water. Nationally these are the locations where 60 percent of all accidental drownings occur. 


As well as open water in the borough, with many families going abroad and to UK coastlines for their summer holiday, understanding how to stay safe in the water lets everyone have a great time and come home safely. 


Over the summer months, we are highlighting what the dangers are if you get into open bodies of water, what we are doing to make waterways safer, and how you can educate your children on water safety in our wonderful borough and on holiday. Keep an eye out on our social channels and in the Residents' Newsletter.


You can get to know the Royal Life Saving Society’s Water Safety Code in this video.

Final reminder to register to vote for the General Election


We're giving a final reminder to voters, who are not currently on the electoral register, to ensure you sign up by 11.59pm on Tuesday 18 June to participate in the General Election on Thursday 4 July.


But first make sure you're not already registered


You only have to register if you have never registered before, or have recently moved, or changed your name. Please do not apply to register if you have already received a poll card for your current address.


To check you are registered, please contact the Elections Helpline via 01628 683868. Errors in unnecessary duplicate applications could alter your existing details or delay any absent vote being issued, so please check first.  


How to register


Registering is easiest online at the UK Government - Register to Vote webpage.


The confirmed candidates


You can see a full list of confirmed candidates for both the Windsor constituency and the Maidenhead constituency on our elections and voting webpage.


Postal and proxy voting


The deadline for receiving new postal vote and postal proxy applications, or amending existing postal or proxy applications, is 5pm on Wednesday 19 June. The deadline for receiving new applications to vote by proxy (not postal proxy or emergency proxies) is 5pm on Wednesday 26 June.


You now have the additional option to apply online to vote by post or proxy on the UK Government - How to Vote webpage.

Volunteer Fair for the borough is a big success!


We had a brilliant time hosting our Volunteer Fair on Saturday!

 

Over 30 community groups came together at Maidenhead Library to promote their services, engage with residents and discuss volunteering. If you would like to find out more about volunteering, click here.

 

We also welcome any community group that supports our residents to engage with us through our Voluntary and Community Sector Partnership.

 

A big thank you to Rio Deli and The Handmade Cake Company Limited for supplying all the tasty treats on the day, and to Mo and the team at Grilled Grub for donating our delicious lunch.

 

To everyone who joined us – thank you! It was great to see everyone and have such a positive boost to the weekend and 40th National Volunteer Week.

Celebrating Carers Week


This week is Carers Week (10-16 June), and we just want to say a big thank you to all the residents in our community who provide unpaid care for a family member, friend or neighbour.

 

This year’s theme is ‘Putting Carers on the Map’ and we're using this as an opportunity to highlight their valuable role and some of the support available locally for carers.

 

Further details on what it means to be an unpaid carer can be found in this video: Do you look after someone? Are you an Unpaid Carer? on Vimeo.

 

Useful links for Carers


 

What is a Carer’s Assessment?

 

If you're a carer, you might be eligible for support. A Carer’s Assessment looks at how caring affects your life and helps work out how you can continue doing the things that are important to you while taking care of your wellbeing. This flowchart shows how the referral and assessment process works.

 

If you provide unpaid care for a loved one then please take a look at Optalis’ Carers Self Assessment Form or contact the Optalis Front Door Team directly.

Hearing the voices of local fostered children


In recent weeks, you might have spotted our campaign appealing for more people to become foster carers and make a difference for local young people in the community.

 

What you won’t have realised is each of the snapshots of family life portrayed in the campaign visuals, like the example above, was inspired by the real experiences of local fostered children and young people, and care leavers.

 

To place young people and their voices at the heart of the campaign, we ran a research session with “Kickback”, our Children in Care Council, where young people were asked to name “Fun things I’ve done with my foster carer”.

 

Their responses and insights were used in shaping the campaign. We also held a separate session where the group created this acrostic, listing the personal qualities of their “ideal foster carer”. 

Could you foster?

 

Providing a secure, stable and supportive home for a child or young person in care is a valuable and rewarding paid role. In return, we offer our foster carers excellent support, training and benefits via our in-house independent fostering agency, Achieving for Children Fostering.


We need more people from all walks of life to look after a range of local children and young people in the short or longer-term, including teenagers, sibling groups and children with a disability, who for different reasons cannot live with their parents.


We welcome enquiries from anyone aged 21 or over, regardless of income, employment status, gender, sexuality, religion, whether or not you have pets, own your home or rent. It’s your personal qualities that matter.


Our website has lots of information about the process and opportunities, we are also available via phone and email, make contact with us for an informal chat. Email us at fosteringenquiries@achievingforchildren.org.uk or call 020 8547 5355.

Helping Royal Ascot run smoothly for everyone


Next week is Royal Ascot and once again our teams will be providing support to help this large, prestigious event run smoothly. We’re working closely with the organisers at the racecourse, Thames Valley Police, and other partners to ensure everyone has a safe and enjoyable time, and the impact on our wider community is appropriately managed.

 

Taking place over five days, from Tuesday 18 to Saturday 22 June, the horse racing festival will bring thousands of visitors to Ascot Racecourse. If you’re in the Ascot area next week, please be aware that event organisers will have temporary traffic management in place from Tuesday to Saturday, and you can learn more about that at the Ascot website.

 

Also, if you live in the Ascot area, please put out your bin for collection on Monday as usual. If you live at one of those few properties in Ascot that have a Tuesday collection, please put out your bin by 5am as those collections will start slightly earlier next week due to the festival.

 

Our Community Wardens will be focusing on tackling the ticket touts and liaising with our CCTV operators and the police to help keep everyone safe. The CCTV operators will be monitoring for criminal activity and suspicious behaviour, welfare and safety issues, and crowd control issues.

 

Our Trading Standards team will be doing weights and measures checks to ensure accurate alcohol measures are served at bars. They’ll also check traders are following other trading rules in place to protect customers and the public, such as tobacco regulations, accurate food labelling and refusing underage sales.

 

Our Environmental Health team will be inspecting a range of food outlets, from celebrity chef kitchens to food trucks, looking at food standards, food handling, facilities and food safety management. Meanwhile, the Licensing team will be monitoring the taxi rank, working alongside the police to ensure its authorised use, and monitoring licensable activity at bars.

First Berkshire Prosperity Board meeting to be held


The first Berkshire Prosperity Board meeting is to be held on Monday 17 June and this new joint committee, made up of the six Berkshire unitary authorities, aims to help drive forward and deliver future economic success across the county.


The six councils have committed to working together to drive and deliver economic prosperity across the county with the aim of securing more funding, creating more jobs and enabling more affordable housing for residents. Working together will also help us seize opportunities to promote Berkshire to investors, businesses and Central Government.


The first meeting of the Prosperity Board on Monday 17 June will provide the background to the creation of the Board, set out its workstreams and receive an update on the development of the Berkshire Economic Development Strategy. The meeting will be at Wokingham Borough Council offices in Shute End from midday until 2pm.


The agenda can be found here.


Read more

Broadway in Maidenhead is open to traffic once again

 

Broadway in Maidenhead is now open again, after its full closure last week to enable the safe demolition of the former Broadway multi-storey car park. A partial lane closure remains until Friday 21 June and diversions to bus services have now also ended.

 

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank residents and local businesses for your patience during the closure, which was a necessary part in the demolition of the building.

Reminder: Innovation funding - making your great idea a reality


Applications are now open for the fifth round of Innovation Funding for community-led projects health and wellbeing initiatives across the Royal Borough.


It offers one-off funding per successful application of up to £5,000 to get your projects up and running. Applications close at midnight on Tuesday 23 July.


Although applications are welcome for any project that can show how it will improve local health and wellbeing, this round is particularly looking for ideas that will support:


  • Unpaid carers
  • Families children and young people
  • People with learning disabilities
  • Addressing isolation and loneliness by improving community connections


Previous successful projects include those protecting biodiversity, football sessions for children, and yoga for Asian women.


Check out the full list of the 47 successful applicants so far on the Innovation Funding section on the RBWM Together website. You can also use this link to discover more about the application process, and then apply. 

Introducing virtual resident parking permits


From Monday 17 June we're introducing virtual permits to all resident permit types. The scheme will be provided through the MiPermit system and you will be asked to make any further purchases of a resident permit type through the MiPermit portal on our website.


Many authorities now use these schemes, which give the permit holder the flexibility to manage, renew and pay online for their permits at any time of the day and without the restriction of contacting the council during office hours only. The new process will also result in faster processing of your applications.


As this is a digital permit, recorded in the same system used by Civil Enforcement Officers, the holder no longer has to display a paper permit in their car. It cannot be lost or stolen, which saves the holder the cost and inconvenience of applying for a replacement. However, residents are still asked to display their current physical permits until they expire.


If you're unable to apply online you can visit your nearest library where staff will be able to assist.

Final reminder: Help finalise our affordable housing planning document


There are just a few days left to take part in our consultation to help finalise a key planning document, which will assist with securing the right amount, and type, of new affordable housing in our borough.


The draft Affordable Housing Delivery Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) is a technical document that, once finalised, will help guide developers and those deciding planning applications.


While an SPD cannot create new planning policy, or change existing policy, it sets out detailed guidance to help the council and developers in negotiations to achieve as much affordable housing as possible from proposed schemes, placing the priority on social rented and affordable rented homes that best meet local needs.


We would like to hear people’s views on our draft SPD document, which you can read on our website, or in person at Maidenhead, Windsor and Ascot libraries. Take part here. The consultation runs until 11.59pm 20 June. If you missed our online consultation event last week, you can watch it here.

Sunningdale Parish by-election results


Check out the full results of the by-election held yesterday in Sunningdale over one vacant seat on the parish council.


Phillip Curtis was elected as the parish councillor. The turnout was 13.85%.


Thank you to everyone who participated. 

Royal Borough Community Spotlight


Here are just some of the upcoming community events and volunteering opportunities in the Royal Borough.


  • Bazaar & Coffee Morning (Saturday 15 June, 10am to 11.30am) - St Marks Crescent Methodist Church, Allenby Road, Maidenhead, SL6 5BQ. A raffle will be organised with various prizes. A friendly morning for all in the community to enjoy. Stalls available with many items for sale all at good prices. Delicious home baked cakes, stationery, books, CDs, DVDs, bric-a-brac, with items for gifts or home. Coffee is available during the morning and served in our colourful Hub. All welcome - Free entry. All proceeds to St Marks Church Fund. For more information email.


  • Let’s talk about Dementia event (Saturday 15 June, 10.30am to 12.30pm and Tuesday 18 June, 6.30pm to 8.30pm) - Mountbatten Grange care home, Helston Lane, Windsor, SL4 5GG. Despite the leaps and bounds we’ve made in raising awareness of dementia, plenty of misconceptions remain and there are still a lot of things people don’t know or aren’t comfortable talking about. Many people admit finding the condition uncomfortable to discuss – and this is where our latest initiative, The Big Dementia Conversation, comes in. Our aim is to get the nation talking about dementia and some of the most difficult topics associated with the condition. To book your place visit.


  • Wraysbury Village Fair (Saturday 15 June, 1pm to 4pm) – Memorial Ground, Wraysbury. Arts and crafts, food and drink stalls, fun games, classic cars and much more. For more information visit.


  • The Maidenhead Lions annual Duck Derby (Sunday 16 June, 12pm to 5pm) - Ray Mill Island on the Thames below Boulter's lock. There's a wide variety of stalls and local organisations offering goods for sale and games of chance and activities will include face painting, music, Nick teaching his circus skills and making his balloon creatures and an opportunity to be creative with crafts and the ever-popular hook a duck. The Duck Race will be started by the Mayor at 4.30pm. The Sea Cadets will release the ducks which can be seen drifting down the Thames. Entry is free but tickets for the duck race will be on sale on the day. For more information visit.


  • Family Service and BBQ (16 June from 11.30am) - Parkside Christian Fellowship, 16 St Lukes Road, Maidenhead, SL6 7AN. All are welcome to join us for our Family Service, followed by a free BBQ lunch. For more information visit.


  • Windsor & Maidenhead Symphony Orchestra summer family concert (Sunday 16 June, 4pm, bring along a picnic from 2pm) - Newbold Church, Binfield, RG42 4AN. Featuring: Walton Johannesburg festival Overture, Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2, featuring the Winner of the WMSO Young Musicians' Competition 2022, Ryan Wang and Tchaikovsky Suite from Swan Lake. The orchestra is a semi-professional, high-standard group of musicians who rehearse every Tuesday evening during term time at the Dolphin School in Hurst, performing at least three major concerts in local venues. For more information visit the website.


  • The genius of Rene Lalique, a lecture by Andy McConnell (Monday 17 June, commencing at 11.30am) - Braywick Leisure Centre. A visual feast, covering Lalique’s early work in jewels and furniture. For more information visit.


  • Coffee Morning (24 June, 10.30am to 12pm) - Parkside Christian Fellowship, 16 St Lukes Road, Maidenhead, SL6 7AN. Join us on the second and fourth Mondays each month for free refreshments and a chance to chat and make new friends. For more information visit.


  • Monday Friends (Monday 24 June, 10.30am to12pm) - St Marks Crescent Methodist Church, Allenby Road, SL6 5BQ. Join us for a lovely friendly morning, which is proving to be quite popular and each month we have a different theme. The meeting will include refreshments and is very informal, with a short time for a prayer. This is a morning for all in the community, especially those who are alone and would like to make friends and get to know others. All welcome, free entry! For more information email or telephone 07714 892599.


  • Walk along the Butterfly Trail (Tuesday 25 June, 10am) – Meet in National Trust Car Park, Maidenhead Thicket, SL6 6QE. Parking is free! Join Maidenhead United's Wellbeing Support Service for a lovely wellbeing walk. We will flutter along the Butterfly Trail and enjoy some mindful time in nature. There will be a coffee break at Stubbings Nursery halfway through the 45-minute walk where drinks will be available to purchase. For more information email.


  • Pub & Pastries Seniors Summer Party (Monday 1 July, 12.30pm) - The Fox & Castle, Old Windsor. Join us for fun, food, and fizz! We warmly invite local seniors and their families and local community groups to meet, mingle and be merry in a relaxed, beautiful pub and pub garden.


  • Picnic in the Park (Saturday 6 July, gates open from 5pm) - Grove Park, White Waltham. White Waltham Village Association will be holding their annual picnic. There will be BBQ, music, kids’ disco and a bar. Bring a picnic, your friends, family and dogs and enjoy a relaxing evening. For more information visit.


  • Claremont Singers Summer Concert (Sunday 7 July, 3pm) - Holy Trinity and Garrison Parish Church, Claremont Road/Trinity Place, Windsor SL4 3AX. The choir would love you to join them for our Songs for Summer to raise money for Thames Hospice and Holy Trinity Church. Complimentary Tea and cake will be served after the concert.


  • Singing for the brain (9 July and second Tuesday of each month, 10.30am to 12pm) – Mountbatten Grange care home, Helston Lane, Windsor, SL4 5GG. Meet other members of the community living with dementia and sing a variety of songs you know and love in a fun and friendly environment. Take part in vocal exercises that help improve brain activity and wellbeing. For more information visit.


  • Bugs, Birds and Beasts Day (Tuesday 30 July, 12pm to 5pm) - Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, SL5 7PY. Come to a day of free and exciting events for all the family at Imperial College London’s Silwood Park campus. Join us and find out how bugs, birds and beasts enrich our lives. Watch live bird eggs develop and hatch, marvel at falconry displays, take part and discover wonderful facts about the creatures all around us. For more information visit or to register visit.


  • Age Concern Windsor is looking for volunteers to help deliver their Meals on Wheels to local older adults in Windsor, Old Windsor and Datchet. Most of our clients are quite isolated and find it difficult to cook meals for themselves. The hot meals we deliver ensure our clients have a balanced diet, and most of them really love a chat as they don’t see many people. Flexible days are Tuesday through Friday. If you’re more of a people person we have a variety of different roles within our social groups, lunch clubs and Day service. For more information visit, call 01753 860685 or email.


  • Volunteers wanted. Maidenhead Community Watch Association provides vulnerable and elderly residents in Maidenhead with various free home security items. If you would like to help with this project by becoming one of our Assessors we would be delighted to hear from you. Brief training is provided. To find out more, please contact our Chairman, John Diack, on 01628 622876 or email.


  • Maidenhead Choral Society: call for singers. Maidenhead Choral Society are celebrating the life and work of Anton Bruckner by performing his Mass in F Minor, Te Deum, Locus Iste, and more in their autumn concert, 16 November 2024. They welcome enthusiastic singers in all parts, and there are no auditions. Rehearsals are held on Monday evenings (excluding bank holidays) from 7.45pm to 9.45pm in the music room at Furze Platt School. For more information visit.


  • The Tuesday Singers are saying farewell to James Church our conductor and accompanist in August, and we are delighted to welcome Jo Hutchins as our accompanist from September but are still looking for a conductor. If you know anyone who is available on Tuesday mornings and can get to St Mark's Crescent Methodist Church, SL6 5BQ ready for a 10am start please let us know. We would also be delighted to welcome new members. Our ladies choir starts promptly at 10am and ends with coffee in the café area after 11.45am. More information visit, email or call 01494 443464.


  • Knowl Hill Badminton Cub: we currently have vacancies for new players! We meet every Monday from 9.45am to 11.45am at the Village Hall. For further information, please contact Sandra on 07742 895683.

If you have an upcoming not-for-profit community event or appeal for volunteers you’d like to promote in this newsletter, simply send basic information about your event to communications@rbwm.gov.uk and it could be shared with more than 21,000 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.


To see further volunteering opportunities in the borough, or for another way for community organisations to promote volunteering opportunities, please visit RBWM Together.

Our consultations - have your say


We regularly hold consultations and surveys to get your views on proposals within the Royal Borough.


Participating, sharing ideas, and giving your feedback is the best way to ensure your views are heard.


Our current consultations are:



Partner consultations:


  • Only for residents of the Sunningdale parish: Sunningdale Parish Council has launched its Resident and Stakeholder Survey, which they will use to inform their decision making on the priorities of the Parish via their Business Plan. The closing date is 17 June 2024 and Sunningdale Parish Council encourages its residents to complete the survey online on their website. 

Local Travel Updates


For details of further council works on highways, visit our website. For full local roadwork details, including work by utility firms, please visit the One Network website.


  • Roadworks are being carried out outside The Royal Foresters Hotel, London Road, in Bracknell next week, and temporary traffic lights will be in operation from Monday 17 June to Wednesday 19 June. Any enquiries should go to Bracknell Forrest Council.   

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