Out-of-hours council services to improve the night time economy considered

Out-of-hours services to improve the night time economy are being considered by the Royal Borough.

Craig Miller, a borough officer, said council officers could be placed on-call outside of office hours to help tackle issues such as noise, underage drinking sales and anti-social behaviour.

Proposals to establish a 'common response' could be put in place, meaning if a person is turned away or removed from one establishment, other similar venues in the town are alerted to the problem.

Mr Miller added that the borough will look at how it deals with issues in earlier night time hours and consider putting resources on the ground to prevent any issues becoming a bigger problem later in the evening.

Cllr Malcolm Beer (Ind, Old Windsor) said: "It will save a lot of tension around the town which will help the economy."

Out-of-hours services were discussed at the Royal Borough's highways, transport and environment overview and scrutiny panel at Maidenhead Town Hall on Tuesday.

At the same meeting, Cllr Maureen Hunt (Con, Hurley and Walthams) praised the council for repairing sub-standard roads around the borough

"Whenever I have to phone up to say something needs repairing with the roads, it's done pretty much right away, so I'm pleased with that."

She also raised concerns that some roads in the past had been done badly and were soon torn up again after repair.

Borough officer Christopher Wheeler reassured the council that any poor work was put right at the contractor's expense and that timings with wet and cold weather conditions had made it a more difficult task.

•  The panel also discussed the Legoland traffic management scheme in Windsor and chairman Jesse Grey (Con, Datchet) said: “We are trying to make it better all the time and we will continue to do that.”