RBWM risks 'detrimental impact' if state visits costs are not paid 

Windsor and Maidenhead council will be unable to keep supporting state visits in the Royal Borough if the Government does not reimburse its costs for previous events, a councillor has warned.

Windsor has staged a number of high-profile events this year while Buckingham Palace undergoes a £350million refurbishment.

The US President visited Windsor Castle for an unprecedented second state visit in September.

French President Emmanuel Macron also visited the royal town in July, which saw crowds treated to a spectacular display of pageantry during a carriage procession.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is set to be the latest royal visitor to Windsor this week when he is hosted at Windsor Castle by King Charles.

Staging these visits has come at a cost to the Royal Borough, and the council’s cabinet member for finance, Councillor Lynne Jones, has warned the council cannot afford to keep contributing financially unless it receives adequate funding from Government.

Councillor Jones (Local Independents, Old Windsor) told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, November 25: “It is clear that the scale of the running expenditure far exceeds what could be reasonably absorbed within our existing budgets.

“We cannot continue to support these [visits] unless appropriate funding is received. Otherwise, we risk a detrimental impact on the services received by our communities.” 

A Freedom of Information request submitted to the council revealed it spent £160,000 supporting the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron. 

This covered the installation of crowd barriers, stewarding costs and road closures. 

The state visit of US President Donald Trump cost the council £37,000 in crowd management and road closures, a separate Freedom of Information request said. 

The cabinet meeting heard the council’s bill for staging recent state visits currently stands at £350,000.

Council chief executive Stephen Evans said it was ‘completely unacceptable’ that central Government had not yet refunded its costs for helping to support state visits in Windsor.

He said: “I’ll continue to press [the government] to make sure we get our fair share, but as things stand, that call is falling on deaf ears.”

Cllr Amy Tisi (Lib Dem, Clewer East) said that while the borough is proud to host events that are watched internationally, this cannot be expected to come out of taxpayers’ money.

She added: “We simply can’t make the financial burden fall on our residents’ shoulders. It just simply isn’t fair on them.”

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office was contacted for comment.