Day centres decision to be looked at again

A plan to use two council-owned buildings for supported living accommodation will be looked at again after councillors raised their concerns.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM) approved plans to use the Oakbridge Day Centre and Windsor Day Centre in Imperial Road for at least 22 units last year.

The former has been used as a day centre for people with learning disabilities, while the latter was a former day centre for older people and shut in 2021.

Last month RBWM's cabinet agreed to seek an organisation that would run the site and the supported accommodation but four councillors said they want further scrutiny of the decision.

The council is looking turn the two buildings that sit on council-owned land into supported living accommodation for older adults and the other for younger people aged 18-25.

At a cabinet meeting last month, councillors agreed to start looking for an organisation that will take over the site to help provide these services.

But because the Oakbridge Day Centre is a community asset, the council published a notice of proposed disposal in July.

That allowed any interested community groups to come forward with offers to purchase the site.

The Windsor Muslim Association (WMA) put forward a £5m bid to turn the use the buildings as a permanent home.

But the council said its offer was unviable.

In response, a group of councillors called in the decision for further scrutiny, which will be heard at a place overview and scrutiny panel on Monday.

Those councillors are Jack Douglas and Alison Carpenter, of the TBFI, independent Wisdom Da Costa and Asghar Majeed, a Conservative.

They said they felt not all options for the site were considered to allow a "credible, defensible decision" to be reached.