Leader of Conservative-dominated Royal Borough says policies will be open to scrutiny despite lack of opposition

Decisions made by the Conservative-dominated council will be open to scrutiny, says its leader David Burbage.

The Tories hold 54 of 57 Royal Borough council seats.

In the previous administration there were 46 Conservatives, three Liberal Democrats, two UKIP councillors, three West Windsor Residents Association members, two from  Old Windsor Residents Association, and one Independent councillor.

Cllr Burbage (Con, Bray), said:"I think we obviously had a small opposition for four years. Where issues have proved controversial, or worthy of needing scrutiny, we have had those debates."

Cllr Burbage said the introduction of audio recording for council meetings has meant the borough is now open to more scrutiny than ever before.

He says there will still be the opportunities to debate policies

He added: "Everything that can be in public is in public. We're going to make sure the ability for decisions to be called in is still available to opposition members. So if there are questions about something we have done, we're very happy to defend them under scrutiny of opposition members and, no doubt, the press as well.

"We had some good debates about grammar schools, which generated some good headlines both locally and indeed nationally. We had debates about the Oldfield School and where it should be expanded. I'm sure we'll have debates about the various developments in Maidenhead Town Centre, which, as you know are numerous, and there's options on the table for how those might proceed."

Cllr Burbage added that when changes are proposed or are about to happen, the council's partners will be kept 'in the loop'.