Windsor News from Councillors Carole and Wisdom Da Costa

We raised the problem in February. We asked the Council to investigate it. We went out and asked residents ourselves. We tried to bring the issue before Full Council. That debate has now been ruled out. So now we need residents to speak for themselves.

Something important is happening to Windsor.

The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead is carrying out a Community Governance Review (CGR) which could lead to the creation of a new Windsor Town Council.

We support giving Windsor residents the opportunity to determine the future of their local community governance.

But there is a fundamental problem.

The Council has defined the Windsor Review Area around the currently unparished parts of Windsor. Its own consultation says that the review concerns town councils in the “unparished areas of Windsor and Maidenhead”, with only part of Clewer & Dedworth West included. 

That means established communities on Windsor’s Edge of Settlement which happen to lie within Bray Parish are outside the Windsor Review Area.

It also affects newer developments on Windsor’s expanding western edge.

This isn’t simply about lines on a map. It is about people, identity and where people believe their community is.

We raised this before the review began

This issue has not suddenly appeared at the end of the process.

On 3 February 2026, I wrote to the councillors responsible for the review asking them to include the option of bringing Edge of Settlement developments—including AL21, The Limes, Broom Farm and The Willows—within the scope of an all-Windsor Town Council. 

The following day, Lead Member Cllr Richard Coe told me:

“I am not expecting to cover the Bray Windsor boundary in this review.”

He was concerned that the complexity might delay or jeopardise the creation of a Windsor Town Council. He also said that evidence of genuine demand for a boundary change had not been provided. 

I disagreed with that approach.

Surely the purpose of a Community Governance Review is not to require residents to prove that they deserve to be consulted before the Council decides whether to consult them?

I asked for Council officers to undertake proper engagement with these communities before concluding the review and specifically identified The Willows, Broom Farm, AL21 and The Limes. 

On 17 February, Cllr Coe again said there was “no evidence of any demand for a boundary change” and suggested that I could generate that evidence through a survey. He said that, if a Windsor Town Council were subsequently created, residents could ask for another boundary review later. 

So we went and asked residents ourselves.

Cllr Carole Da Costa, Cllr Jack Douglas and I (Cllr Wisdom Da Costa) knocked on approximately 100 doors across Broom Farm, The Limes and The Willows.

Thirty households responded.

Twenty-seven said they wanted to be included within a Windsor Town Council. Three did not.

That is 90% of those who responded.

This was a relatively small doorstep exercise, not a substitute for a professionally designed Council consultation. We would not claim that 30 responses establish the views of every household.

But that is precisely the point.

The results provided a strong reason to ask everyone properly.

Residents spoke about their connections with Windsor—schools, shopping, work, social life and the other things that make somewhere your community rather than simply somewhere inside an administrative boundary.

And Windsor has changed

This isn’t only about long-established communities such as Broom Farm, The Limes and The Willows.

Windsor has been expanding westwards.

New homes and communities have been built since the existing parish arrangements were last reviewed, with further major development underway.

Some families have spent substantial sums buying newly built homes with Windsor in their address, reasonably understanding that they have moved to Windsor.

Imagine buying your home in Windsor, putting Windsor in your address, using Windsor’s schools, shops and services, building your family and social life around Windsor—and then discovering that when the Council considers creating Windsor’s own Town Council, your home sits outside the Windsor Review Area.

A postal address does not legally determine a civil-parish boundary.

But community identity isn’t created by a postcode or an historic administrative line either. It is created by people and their everyday lives.

Indeed, this boundary question is not something invented in 2026. At an RBWM meeting in 2023, councillors were expressly told that one question in preparing the Terms of Reference would be whether to review only unparished Windsor or conduct a concurrent review of the boundary between Bray and a potential Windsor Town Council. 

The choice existed.

We tried to bring the question to Full Council

In July, Full Council approved the Terms of Reference for the current CGR. 

Those Terms of Reference now restrict the Review Area to the currently unparished areas.

So we attempted to bring a motion to Full Council on 22 September.

Importantly, our motion did not ask councillors to decide that Broom Farm, The Limes, The Willows or any other part of Bray Parish must be transferred into a Windsor Town Council.

We deliberately rewrote it to avoid predetermining the answer.

It asked Council to amend the geographical scope so that the current review could consider and consult upon whether the existing boundary should remain unchanged or be altered.

The motion expressly said this should be done:

“without predetermining the outcome of the Review.”

In other words:

Look at the alternatives. Ask the people. Examine the evidence. Then decide.

But that debate will not now take place.

Council governance officers advised the Mayor that our motion was “substantially the same” as the motion considered by Full Council in July and therefore should not be accepted under the Council’s Constitution. 

We pointed out that the July decision was to approve the Terms of Reference, whereas our September motion sought to amend one specific geographical restriction within them.

We also pointed out that our revised motion did not ask Council to change the boundary—it asked Council to allow the CGR to consider whether it should change. 

Nevertheless, the motion has been rejected.

Readers can form their own view about that decision.

For us, the more important question is what happens to the residents whose voices we were trying to bring into the process.

There is still time for residents to speak

The Council itself has said that scrutiny of the CGR was intended to help ensure that the process was “robust, transparent and fit for purpose.”

We agree.

And Cllr Coe told Cabinet that getting the process right was more important than rushing it. 

We agree with that too.

That is why we do not believe Windsor should establish new democratic institutions around yesterday’s geography without properly examining the communities of today and the Windsor that is now being built.

Nor should residents necessarily have to wait years for another Community Governance Review, another consultation and another Council process to consider a question that could be examined now.

We are not asking the Council to decide that these communities belong in Windsor.

We are asking the Council to ask them.

And if residents tell us that they want to remain in Bray Parish, that view deserves to be respected too.

That is what consultation should be about.

Now we need YOU to speak

The Council’s consultation remains open until 30 September 2026. 

If you live at Broom Farm, The Limes, The Willows, on one of the newer developments on Windsor’s western edge, or in another Edge of Settlement community, please do not assume somebody else will speak for you.

Tell the Council where you believe your community belongs.

Tell them about the schools your family uses, where you shop, where you work, where you socialise, which community facilities you use and, above all, whether you consider yourself to live in Windsor.

And if you believe your community should at least be considered as part of the Windsor Town Council review, say so explicitly.

Respond to RBWM’s Community Governance Review <– click here

You can also contact the CGR team at CGRenquiries@RBWM.gov.uk or pd.review@rbwm.gov.uk, which are the contact addresses published on the Council’s consultation page.

A simple response residents could send is;

I live in [ROAD/DEVELOPMENT/AREA] and I consider my community to be part of Windsor.

I am concerned that because my home is currently within a civil parish, it falls outside the geographical scope of the Windsor Community Governance Review.

Please amend the scope of the review so that my community can be considered and residents can be properly consulted before the boundary of any Windsor Town Council is decided.

My connections with Windsor include [schools/work/shopping/healthcare/leisure/family/community activities].

I believe residents affected by the boundary should be asked before the Council reaches its final recommendations.

We raised it. We asked for it to be investigated. We asked residents ourselves. We tried to get it debated at Full Council.

Now we’re asking you.

Do you call Windsor home? Make sure the Council hears your voice before 30 September.

Note: The main image is AI generated and meant to be figurative of the issues set out in this article.