Footbridge to Cliveden Reach must be built

What a delightful idea Mr Martin Knight of Taplow has come up with – to replace Maidenhead’s first bridge, knocked down in battles over 600 years ago, with a light and airy modern footbridge on nearly the same site!

I hope the South Bucks councillors realise that this is the key to unlock the hidden riverside beauties of the Cliveden Reach, cut off from the people by the post-war paper pollution of the greenbelt allowed in the last 50 years or so.

Both the paper mill and the greenbelt that South Bucks District Council allowed it to spread over, and the Edwardian slum they allowed Skindles to become, need redeveloping. And the heavy traffic should be removed from the riverside properties and the dangerous connection with the A4 by the bridge, which resulted from the council allowing Skindles to acquire the land of the old Bath Road.

A new safer junction should be provided east of the garage. I’m sure that the Civic Society is right to point out that a five-storey hotel immediately adjacent to our listed bridge is not considerate or intelligent planning.

But that is no reason why the famous name of Skindles should not be used for a new large first-class hotel in the area between the Thames and Jubilee rivers. As the former owner of Skindles, Mr Trepani, once put it, ‘Ve must encourage all dese vloddy voriners to come and stay ere and enjoy themselves’!

We could do with such a salesman today to help put Maidenhead back on the map of the Thames. The two pictures you published also show that if you want your development to look good, you must employ an architect.

From the recent developments in the town it is obvious that our local authorities don’t employ architects, only box ticking bureaucrats, and until they accidentally employed one with a conscience, our planner was only an employee of the treasurer.

Now it is up to our councillors on both sides of the river to promote and approve plans that will pay for such a bridge.

MICHAEL BAYLEY
Westmorland Road,
Maidenhead