Advertiser review of the year: October

Infrastructure around Maidenhead Railway Station came under the spotlight throughout October and began with taxi drivers demanding a fix to the ‘frustrating’ forecourt design.

Councillors also worried thieves had been ‘given a green light’ after British Transport Police announced changes to watching back CCTV footage of bicycle thefts.

Then, Stafferton Way multi storey car park came under fire after multiple women raised safety fears due to anti-social behaviour taking place on the building’s poorly lit floors.

It came on the same week that police said two robbers had been jailed for stealing the watch of a man whom they had tailed back to Stafferton Way car park from the train station.

A campaign, backed by the Advertiser, began against controversial Government proposals to change rules on publicising alcohol licensing applications – branded ‘an attack on the public’s right to know’.

Calls for a rethink were also on the agenda for some inhabitants of residential roads named after the former Prince Andrew, who wanted to ditch their address’s association with him.

Credit: Starlight Investments

There were more reminders of the changing face of Maidenhead as more than half of the new flats being built on the old Magnet Leisure Centre were sold off to a Canadian investment firm.

Meanwhile, the chairman of Braywick Nurseries said the near 30-year-old garden centre was threatened with imminent closure due to financial troubles.

The nursery, opened in 1997 by then Prince Charles, gives employment and training opportunities to disabled people.

And Maidenhead Town Show kicked off in the Nicholsons Shopping Centre for what was likely to be the last time in the Nicholsons Centre amid the centre’s looming rebuild.

However, one piece of history that would remain unchanged was the town’s annual Boundary Walk, which saw hundreds of charitable walkers join in the up to 13.5mile circular trek.