State visit costs 'to be reimbursed' - council

A row over who pays council costs during official state visits appears to have been resolved.

Windsor hosted the US President Donald Trump and his French and German counterparts last year, but the Royal Borough Council said it had been left more than £350,000 out of pocket.

It had threatened to withdraw support for the state visit of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu in March.

The council's deputy leader has said it had been told the government had "agreed to reimburse the costs" of the visits.

Windsor has been no stranger to visiting heads of state but 2025 was particularly busy. With Buckingham Palace out of action for renovations, Windsor Castle was used as the main venue for visits.

It meant Windsor and Maidenhead council staff had to spend thousands of extra hours last year preparing for a large influx of visitors.

Street cleaning staff were employed earlier than usual, while council stewards were needed to ensure people stayed behind crowd control barriers.

Senior council staff were required to liaise behind the scenes with the huge security team that followed President Trump.

When a head of state visits Buckingham Palace who pays for what is well-established and the lines of communication between government, Palace and the City of Westminster are clear.

In the case of the Windsor Castle visits, the BBC understands that a lack of familiarity between government staff and the Royal Borough caused difficulties.

Despite attempts to recoup their costs from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the council raised concerns about having to foot the bill.

Jack Rankin, the Conservative member for Windsor, also said the cost for state visits "should not be incurred locally" in a letter to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.

Last month it threatened to withdraw support for the next visit in the calendar, the Nigerian President's state visit to Windsor on 18-19 March.

Deputy leader Lynne Jones said: "I am really pleased that government has now agreed to reimburse the costs incurred by the council to support the delivery of the three state visits held in Windsor last year, and for the Nigerian visit in a couple of weeks.'

However another row over state visits costs is ongoing.

Thames Valley Police has also said it is due a refund from the government.

The force's police and crime commissioner Matthew Barber has said he is still waiting to hear when the Home Office will reimburse them for policing costs.

The Home Office has previously said: "Thames Valley Police will receive additional costs linked to this state visit, and these will be recovered through standard major event procedures."