Maidenhead & Windsor

Windsor and Maidenhead town centres have been given good bills of health in an important new retail and leisure study.

The study, commissioned by the council to inform future planning decisions and to feed into the Local Development Framework (LDF), was approved by cabinet meeting on Thursday March 23. It confirms that:

Windsor town centre:

* is healthy and vibrant with a good quality shopping offer and an above average number of multiple chain shops (although it recognises the closure of Caleys as a loss to the town)
* has a high quality environment with good levels of vitality and viability
* has considerably lower than average vacant units – just 3.6% compared to the national average of 10.1%
* has public transport facilities that are relatively well-located in relation to the town centre shopping area.

Maidenhead town centre:

* is a vibrant centre with a good level of multiple chain shops and a strong level of demand from retailers wishing to set up shop there
* has increased in attractiveness thanks to recent town centre improvements – and will be further enhanced when the Sainsbury's development is complete next year
* has shop unit vacancies at 9.6% for the town centre as a whole – below the national average
* features a range and quality of retail, service and leisure facilities appropriate to meet most needs of residents.

In fact, the most up-to-date information on the two town centres shows that:

* In Windsor's busy Peascod Street there are just five units available, with one under offer and another already let, while the others are being actively marketed; only two are available in the King Edward Court shopping centre, which is undergoing major redevelopment.
* In Maidenhead there are only two vacant units in the pedestrianised High Street, while in Nicholsons Shopping Centre a major refurbishment will provide new larger retail units to be ready by the summer.

The retail study report also covers Ascot and Sunningdale as district centres for residents' shopping and leisure activities. Again it confirms their vibrancy, with appropriate ranges of goods and services.

Maidenhead Cllr Vicky Howes, lead member for planning, welcomed the report as an independent assessment of how the town centres are performing.

Maidenhead Cllr Howes said: "We commissioned this report to give us an unvarnished appraisal of our town centres and I am gratified to find that it shows they continue to perform well and provide a good level of services for borough residents. The report recognises that there is work to do and more that can be achieved but, overall, our towns and district centres are facilities to be proud of."

The report covers a wide range of leisure and retail issues, including an assessment of the suitability of sites for future development. It identifies that there is capacity for both comparison and convenience floorspace, particularly in Maidenhead, but recommends that this should be reviewed in the next two to three years once the new Sainsbury's and Waitrose stores in Maidenhead and Windsor respectively have opened and when trading patterns have settled.

The report also identifies sites for further study to determine their suitability as retail floorspace for the future.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead