RBWM poised to scrap 'unanimous' vote rule to rename streets

Windsor and Maidenhead council looks set to remove the requirement for all residents to be in agreement in order to change a street name.

Debate has been swirling in the Royal Borough after some residents in Prince Andrew Road called for its name to be scrapped.

This followed fresh scrutiny over Andrew’s links to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the removal of all his royal titles.

In the Royal Borough, the current policy for renaming a street requires 100 per cent agreement of all residents and businesses on that street to approve the name change.

At a full council meeting on Tuesday, November 18, Councillor Adam Bermange (Lib Dem, Boyn Hill) put forward a motion to change this need for unanimity to ‘sufficient support’.

He said that agreement from two-thirds of all residents and businesses on a road would be enough. The council would still need to agree on the name as well.

Cllr Bermange said: “This [unanimity] seemed like an overly burdensome threshold. Local street names form part of the local identity that can help create a sense of pride and place.”

Other councillors supported this motion and called the existing policy ‘undemocratic’ and ‘unrealistic’.

Cllr Kashmir Singh (Ind, Riverside) said he was contacted by a large number of his residents who wanted to change the name of two streets, Prince Andrew Road and Prince Andrew Close.

“I think it’s completely undemocratic to have the bar at 100 per cent unanimity to change the name of a road,” Cllr Singh said.

Cllr Devon Davies (Lib Dem, Eton and Castle) agreed and said there is an ‘imminent need’ for this change.

But Cllr Sally Coneron (Con, Ascot and Sunninghill) argued that the requirement for unanimity among residents is a ‘high bar’ because changing a street name affects ‘absolutely everyone’.

Cllr Coneron said: “Some might say what about streets named after controversial figures like Prince Andrew. Cases like that are extremely rare, and when they do happen, residents usually agree that the name needs to be changed – you get a consensus naturally.

“I think we need to think about this in some potential real-life scenarios. Imagine a street where a handful of friends get together after a barbecue and decide in their great wisdom that it will be brilliant to rename the road after a TV character.

“Under this majority proposal if those friends just happen to make up enough of the street that name, their joke could actually go through.”

Cllr Richard Coe (Lib Dem, Riverside) said that there are also financial considerations that residents wanting to change the name of their street will have to consider and pay for.

“There is going to be an [administrative] cost. As well as this [two thirds] threshold there is also a financial deterrent to maybe frivolous ideas dreamt up at drunken barbeques,” Cllr Coe said.

Cllr Helen Taylor (Ind, Oldfield) backed the motion and said that the need for a ‘legitimate reason’ to change a street name can be included in the motion.

Cllr Bermange reassured councillors that this motion only changes the level of support needed, not the rest of the policy currently used by the Royal Borough.

“There will be of course other elements of the policy, as there already are, which would not change, and they would prevent frivolous, potentially offensive name changes from being able to go through,” Cllr Bermange said.

The motion was given the green light, with 31 councillors voting for, four against. Two councillors abstained from the vote.