05:00PM, Friday 16 January 2026
Maidenhead High Street.
Maidenhead needs a future, not nostalgia
As someone who has knocked on doors on more streets in Maidenhead than I can count, back when I was still involved in local politics, I’ve heard every version of the same nostalgic refrain: “The town was better X years ago.”
It’s a comforting sentiment, but it doesn’t survive contact with reality.
Because when you look at Maidenhead honestly, you see a town that has been stuck in limbo for years, not because of development, but because of the refusal to accept that development is necessary.
Take the Nicholsons Centre. Everyone agrees it’s outdated, under‑occupied, and no longer fit for purpose.
Yet the moment redevelopment is proposed, the same voices who say the town is ‘dying’ suddenly insist that this is the one thing that must never change.
We can’t have it both ways.
A modern town centre needs:
Right now, Nicholsons is none of those things.
Redevelopment isn’t a threat, it’s an opportunity.
Without it, Maidenhead remains a mismatch of empty units, temporary shops, and good intentions but is a cultural black hole.
The recent headlines tell the story clearly:
These stories trigger the same reaction: outrage, petitions, and claims that Maidenhead is being ‘ruined’.
But we need homes.
For young families, key workers, and the next generation who want to stay in the town they grew up in.
If we refuse to build upwards in the town centre and refuse to build outwards on available land, then where are people supposed to live?
The golf course is a perfect example. The golf club and its members chose to sell.
That is their right.
Yet the loudest objections often come from people who never played golf, never visited the site, and now describe it as ‘green lungs’.
Not every greenfield is an ecological treasure. Some are simply open spaces that could serve more people as homes than as private leisure facilities.
And the people who move into those homes will also pay council tax, shop locally, and contribute to the community.
What frustrates me most is the contradiction. Residents say:
Yet when solutions are proposed, the answer is too often ‘not here’ or ‘not like that’.
I was glad to see Tom recently write in favour of development (Viewpoint, December 12), because it’s rare to hear a voice willing to say what many know: Maidenhead cannot improve without building.
We can’t keep clinging to a version of Maidenhead that no longer exists.
The town wasn’t perfect 10, 20, or 30 years ago, and it won’t magically become perfect by resisting every attempt to modernise it.
If we want:
then we have to accept that development is not the enemy. Stagnation is.
Maidenhead deserves better than nostalgia. It deserves a future.
ALEXANDER COBB
Maidenhead
Time to empower town and parish councils?
Dr Arshad Jarral (Viewpoint, January 9) is absolutely spot on!
Very few people know about the Government’s plans for the reorganisation of local councils.
Dr Jarral points to the benefits reorganisation can bring including ‘financial efficiencies and clearer administrative arrangements’ and I agree that ‘democratic participation remains central to the process’.
Where we disagree is the scope of the plans.
My view remains that RBWM is on life support. There is a huge financial crisis which, unless council tax is increased by 30 per cent each year for the next three years minimum, it has no chance of escaping from.
Consequently, I would welcome the abolition of our borough council with the big spending areas such as adult social care, education etc being moved to a larger authority.
The issues which affect local residents directly such as upkeep of local parks, bin collections and street cleaning, could be transferred to a newly created and empowered town council for Windsor and Maidenhead and the various parish councils across our Borough.
Dr Jarral suggests that the key to all of this is ‘transparency, early engagement and public involvement’, it is time for our elected politicians to be proactive, engaging directly with residents, communicating the options available and considering solutions outside of the accepted norm.
RICHARD ENDACOTT
Kingsfield
Windsor
Prepare for looming council tax increases
I understand that RBWM is facing a c£29m Government funding grant reduction under its ‘Fair Funding’ allocation of penalising the ‘rich’ South to reallocate to its heartlands of the North of England.
What does this mean for RBWM residents?
Well, the Government’s assessment of an average Band D property paying c£1,916pa vs RBWM’s c£1,420 (excluding parish precepts – mine being perhaps +£80) should seriously worry residents when coupled with an existing suggested annual funding shortfall of c£30m.
I understand that the council is lobbying Government via the local MPs but this may not result in any reduction given the council is already c£350m in debt and not likely to recoup much from the Golf Course project for a number of years.
So, I think it is reasonable to assume that if it is expected that RBWM residents will be paying the average rate within the next three years and will additionally face a minimum increase of 5 per cent or maybe even 10 or 20 per cent pa.
A total increase of 50 per cent pa in three years’ time is more than likely!
In my case, a Band F property could see an annual rate of £2,650 rise to c£4,000pa costing me, a pensioner working part-time, another c£2,250pa of taxed income.
What hope have younger residents with some of the highest property prices and big mortgages or high rental costs of coping with these rises when they are unlikely to be offset by big pay rises?
Lucky northern residents who are likely to have significantly lower housing costs!
While I understand that RBWM will construct its annual budget on a ‘Zero’ cost basis (starting with statutory requirements before additions) it has ever increasing social care and children service costs to contend with making its challenges even greater!
I guess residents will take no joy from the fact that RBWM has no ability to control items in its budget such as local government pension costs of 16.6 per cent pa and additionally, having to fund its Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) deficit of c£81m with added payments of c£4.7m pa – remember you may only be receiving pension contributions from your employer of 3 per cent pa (you add 5 per cent).
And don’t get me started on the hard-pressed teachers receiving contributions to the unfunded scheme of 28.68 per cent pa (maybe covered by central grants).
Start looking for major personal savings everybody!
GRAHAM PEDERSEN
Lowbrook Drive
Maidenhead
No longer the ‘right person’ for cabinet
Shortly after his triumph at the General Election, Cllr Joshua Reynolds stepped down from the RBWM cabinet.
Given the awesome extra workload of being our MP, this was a necessary change and momentarily reduced its membership to eight.
What followed next was not necessary.
In fact, given the parlous, perilous and precarious state of the Borough’s finances, it was downright inexplicable.
Josh was not just replaced but, a little like a usurped dominant male in a pride, it took two more callow males to fill his boots. Cllrs Mark Wilson and Jack Douglas.
This necessarily attracted a net additional cabinet member special responsibility allowance of c.£16,000.
Perplexed, I asked a question at council and received, an enigmatic reply. Part of Cllr Werner’s answer was -
“The increase in membership reflects the serious financial problems that the current administration has inherited and the need to have the right people in place to fix the mess.”
I’m not sure how padding the political payroll ‘reflects the serious financial problems…’, unless he meant that capricious imperial generosity was and remains the norm.
As for ‘the right people’, well Cllr Wilson remains to help ‘fix the mess’ but Cllr Douglas is not only no longer in cabinet but was suspended from the Liberal Democrat councillor group and now sits as an unaligned independent.
So, if he was the right person to help ‘fix the mess; in July of 2024, how come, less than a year and a half later he’s not even fit to be a Liberal Democrat?
And this, in an era when a life-long conservative, Cllr Hill is?!
There’s a murky, dark back story here.
Maybe the ‘Tiser could dig it out for us?
JOHN BALDWIN
Boyn Hill
Lib Dems should get rid of lap dancing club
I see that the Honeypot strip bar in Maidenhead has its licence up for renewal.
This time (rather than in 2024) I would like to see the Liberal Democrat run council close this establishment; rather than blink on appeal and let it through.
Maidenhead town centre is changing dramatically for the better.
It is vibrant around the waterways in the evenings, with bars and restaurants full. It is hard to get a booking now on some evenings.
One Maidenhead is completed and new offices are under construction.
Very importantly the Nicholson Quarter now has outline planning consent.
Our town will be totally transformed over the coming years.
Hundreds of people will live in the heart of Maidenhead and support a flourishing town centre.
I have lived in Maidenhead for 30 years and am proud to call it my home.
Why should we put up with this abomination when other parts of the Royal Borough would not?
It is time for the Liberal Democrats to deliver for our town. Get rid of this carbuncle and deliver a Maidenhead town centre (with shops) we can all be proud of.
SIMON DUDLEY
Former Riverside councillor and Royal Borough leader
Panto patience showed the spirit of the season
My family were at the Theatre Royal earlier this month for a panto performance which was just five minutes in when the sound system failed.
For an hour reassurances were offered while staff dashed about trying to reboot the system.
Patience endured, banter spread from the boxes, a group of youngsters did an impromptu YMCA, and consensus grew that our hosts had an unenviable challenge.
When failure was announced, instead of panto boos there was appreciative applause for effort.
As a demonstration of seasonal goodwill it could not have been bettered.
STEPHEN TAYLOR
Longbourn
Windsor
A future on thin ICE
The Venezuelan President Maduro need not worry too much.
Now that New York has a Democrat Mayor, presumably the ICE officials will soon round Maduro up and deport him, along with his wife and as many other ‘Latinos’ as they can find!
ICE Age
Take what you want from anybody weaker.
Your wealthy, white South African is the only asylum seeker.
Remove random people the wrong colour for this nation:
‘Absolute immunity’ from death’s investigation.
Now, it’s Venezuela’s President and oil;
Next, we’ll take all Greenland as American soil.
Yes-men and billionaires make your future bleaker.
JAY FLYNN
Moneyrow Green
Holyport
No evidence of Thames Water engagement
The front page article in the January 9 issue of the Slough and Windsor Express (the Advertiser’s sister newspaper) was on the disruption caused by Thames Water mains upgrade in Clewer Hill Road.
I was quoted extensively.
Thames Water, according to your article, told you the following.
"The company said it had assigned a dedicated customer liaison officer to the area who had delivered letters and visited schools and businesses to discuss the impact of the works.”
I can find no evidence to back up this claim.
The two schools impacted were not informed that the closure had been brought forward, local businesses told me they only knew because I had pushed out information on social media.
The liaison officer MAY have done this back in September when the project started (although key businesses told me they received no notification), but I am unaware of any letters and visits informing businesses, schools, and indeed residents generally that the closure date had been brought forward.
Cllr HELEN PRICE
Clewer & Dedworth East Ward
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