This article explains why we believe it is wrong to rule out of consideration specific Windsor communities from a future Windsor Town Council simply because they fall on the wrong side of an old parish boundary — and before they have even been properly asked what they think.

Executive Summary

• RBWM is considering the creation of a Windsor Town Council, but the current Community Governance Review (CGR) is limited to currently unparished Windsor. This means neighbouring communities already within Bray Parish—including Broom Farm Army Estate, The Limes, The Willows/Riverside Park and newer development on Windsor’s western edge—cannot presently be considered for inclusion.
• The central issue is not whether these communities should automatically become part of a Windsor Town Council. It is whether the current CGR should be broad enough to examine the existing Windsor–Bray boundary, consider reasonable alternatives and allow the evidence and consultation to determine the outcome.
• There are good reasons to ask that question now. Windsor has expanded, development has changed settlement patterns, and national CGR guidance requires consideration of community identity and interests, community cohesion, population, boundaries, and effective and convenient governance. A small doorstep exercise in Broom Farm, The Limes and The Willows also found that 27 of 30 responding households favoured inclusion in a Windsor Town Council. This is not a representative survey, but it provides a reason for proper consultation.
• A second CGR after establishing a Town Council remains possible, but that could mean two consultations, two decision-making processes, duplicated officer and governance work, additional costs and potentially two periods of organisational change. Our illustrative estimate puts the possible additional cost of a later targeted review and reorganisation at £30,000–£80,000, although this is not an RBWM figure and the Council should produce its own costed comparison.
• A broader review should also hear from the whole affected community: residents whose parish might change, the wider Bray community, Bray Parish Council and Windsor residents. Their responses should be analysed separately rather than treated as a simple referendum.
• Before final recommendations are made, the Council should therefore explain the evidence supporting the present scope, compare the costs and consequences of one review against two, identify how all affected communities would be consulted, and clarify whether—and how—the current CGR can respond if the evidence supports examining an alternative boundary.
• The objective is not to predetermine the answer, but to ensure that the boundary question is properly examined before a new Windsor Town Council is established. Let’s do it right, first time.

One review. One proper consultation. No predetermined boundary. One Windsor.

Introduction

RBWM’s current approach is based on reviewing the currently unparished areas of Windsor and Maidenhead. Full Council approved the Terms of Reference on 13 July 2026. 

The consequence for Windsor is that adjoining communities already within Bray Parish fall outside the present Review Area.

That includes established Edge of Settlement communities such as Broom Farm Army Estate, The Limes and The Willows/Riverside Park, together with newer development on Windsor’s western edge.

Yet Community Governance Reviews are capable of considering changes to existing parish arrangements and boundaries. The statutory criteria require the principal council to ensure that community governance within the area under review reflects the identities and interests of the community and is effective and convenient. The Council should also take account of community cohesion and the size, population and boundaries of the community or parish. 

So the question should not simply be:

“Where is the parish boundary today?”

It should also be:

“Does that boundary still best reflect the communities that exist today and those developing for tomorrow?”

Windsor has changed

This matters because Windsor has not stood still.

New housing has extended the built-up community westwards. Alongside long-established communities are hundreds of newer homes and further development.

Families establish their sense of community through everyday life: where children attend school; where people shop, work and socialise; the surgeries, leisure facilities and community organisations they use; their transport connections; their neighbours; and where residents themselves believe their community to be.

Government CGR guidance recognises that community identity is not always defined by an administrative line. It requires consideration of community identity and interests, cohesion, population and boundaries. 

That does not prove that Windsor’s existing boundary is wrong.

It demonstrates why the question is worth asking.

What makes a good boundary?

The wider approach of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) is also instructive.

When considering external local-government boundaries, the LGBCE identifies three important considerations: community identities and interests; effective and convenient local government; and value for money.

Importantly, the Commission says communities change and evolve over time. The focus should therefore be on patterns of community interaction today and how they may develop in future. It also recognises that housing and commercial development can cause boundaries to become outdated. 

These principles do not replace the statutory tests governing RBWM’s CGR, but they reinforce an important idea:

Good boundaries should make sense for the communities they serve, not simply survive because they already exist.

Why NOT create a smaller Windsor Town Council first and expand it later?

That is a possible approach and deserves to be considered fairly.

When we raised this issue in February, we were told that there was no evidence of demand for changing the Windsor–Bray boundary, that widening the exercise could introduce complexity and delay, and that residents could seek another boundary review later if a Windsor Town Council were created. 

The concern about complexity is understandable.

But a two-stage approach creates complications of its own.

First, it potentially means two statutory processes instead of one. Evidence gathering, officer work, consultation, mapping, recommendations, Council decisions and implementation may have to be revisited.

Second, it means creating the institution before resolving a boundary question we already know exists. A Town Council’s boundary determines its electorate, representation and the geographical community around which its finances, priorities and administration develop.

Third, a later review would start from a different institutional position.

Before the Town Council exists, the question is:

“What should a Windsor Town Council look like?”

Afterwards, it becomes:

“Should we now alter an established Windsor Town Council and an established neighbouring parish?”

And fourth, residents could experience two periods of organisational change rather than one.

If the boundary question is already known, there is therefore a reasonable case for investigating it before establishing the institution.

Doing it twice could also cost more

There is an important financial question.

RBWM has not, so far as we have identified from the published material, provided an estimate of the cost of conducting a second Windsor boundary CGR after establishing a Town Council.

We therefore should not pretend to know its exact cost.

However, allowing for governance and legal officer time, consultation and communications, electoral and mapping work, reports and meetings, recommendations, a possible Reorganisation Order and implementation, an illustrative planning estimate for a second targeted review and associated reorganisation might be in the region of £30,000–£80,000.

That is our estimate, not an RBWM figure, and the actual figure could be lower or higher.

The important question is therefore not simply:

“Would broadening the present review cost more?”

Additional work may clearly have a cost.

The proper comparison is:

“What is the marginal cost of examining these communities within the CGR already under way, compared with completing this review, establishing a smaller Town Council, conducting another CGR and potentially reorganising the new Town Council afterwards?”

The Council should provide that comparison.

RBWM has already determined that any new Windsor or Maidenhead Town Council can proceed only if it is cost-neutral to the Borough’s budget, and that no new Town Council can be established before May 2028 at the earliest. 

The present process already provides time to ask the question properly

Widening what the present review can consider does not mean deciding the answer immediately.

RBWM’s published timetable provides for an initial public consultation, draft recommendations, a second consultation, final recommendations and, if required, a Community Reorganisation Order. Any new Windsor Town Council would come into force following elections in May 2028. 

There is therefore already a mechanism for asking, analysing, proposing, consulting again and then deciding.

That makes the present stage particularly important.

And that means hearing the whole of Bray—not only the areas that might move

A comprehensive examination should not hear only from Broom Farm, The Limes, The Willows and newer developments.

The wider Bray community should have an opportunity to be heard as well.

Why?

Because changing part of Bray’s boundary could affect the parish that remains—its population, electorate, representation, community identity, governance and potentially its financial arrangements.

RBWM’s own Terms of Reference say the Council is required to consult local government electors living within the Review Area and other individuals and organisations, including existing parish councils, which appear to have an interest in the review. 

But responses should not simply be added together into one referendum-style percentage.

Someone whose home could actually move from Bray Parish into a Windsor Town Council has a particularly direct interest. Someone elsewhere in Bray may instead have important evidence about the consequences for the remaining parish.

The Council could therefore analyse responses geographically and by community, examining the reasons people give about identity, cohesion and governance rather than simply asking which side produces the largest number of responses.

Perhaps residents elsewhere in Bray will provide compelling evidence that these Edge communities form an important part of Bray.

Perhaps the evidence will show that their everyday community connections are predominantly with Windsor.

Either finding would be valuable evidence. That is what an open review should discover.

Our doorstep exercise showed why the question deserves to be asked

Earlier this year, after being told there was no evidence of demand for changing the boundary, Cllrs Carole Da Costa, Jack Douglas and I undertook a small doorstep exercise across Broom Farm, The Limes and The Willows.

We knocked on approximately 100 doors.

Thirty households responded.

Twenty-seven of those 30—90% of respondents—said they wanted inclusion in a Windsor Town Council.

We should be completely clear about what this does and does not demonstrate.

Thirty responses are not a statistically representative survey of all potentially affected households. We cannot legitimately extrapolate 90% across the whole population.

But that is precisely why proper Council consultation matters.

Our doorstep exercise did not provide the answer. It provided evidence that there is a question worth asking properly.

What could one comprehensive review achieve?

Looking beyond any single neighbourhood, examining the Windsor–Bray boundary question within the present process could provide better evidence of community identity, more durable boundaries taking account of development, and representative arrangements designed around the eventual geography from the outset.

It could allow Windsor residents, Edge of Settlement communities and the wider Bray community to participate in one democratic conversation, while recognising that different communities are affected in different ways.

It could test whether one process would provide more effective and convenient governance than two successive reviews; reduce the risk of duplicated work and expenditure; and provide greater institutional stability by allowing any new Town Council to begin with arrangements intended to endure.

Most importantly, it could strengthen public confidence because residents could see that reasonable alternatives had actually been examined before a new institution was established.

None of those potential benefits dictates where the final boundary should lie.

They explain why there is merit in asking the question now.

Questions the Council should now answer

Ultimately, this should not depend upon assertions from either side. If retaining the current scope and potentially conducting another boundary review later is the better approach, the evidence should demonstrate that.

So before final recommendations are made, there are five important questions the Council could answer:

1. What evidence supports the present scope?
What evidence about Broom Farm, The Limes, The Willows/Riverside Park and Windsor’s developing western edge was considered before deciding to limit the Windsor CGR to currently unparished areas? How were community identity, everyday connections, population growth and future development assessed?

2. What are the comparative merits of one review and two?
What are the advantages, disadvantages, risks and timescales of examining reasonable Windsor–Bray boundary alternatives within the current CGR compared with creating a smaller Windsor Town Council first and undertaking another CGR later?

3. What would each approach cost?
What is the estimated additional cost of considering these communities now compared with the cost of a second CGR and any subsequent boundary, electoral and administrative reorganisation? That comparison should include officer, governance/legal, consultation, communications, mapping, electoral and implementation costs.

Our illustrative estimate suggests a second targeted CGR and subsequent reorganisation could potentially involve £30,000–£80,000, but this is not an RBWM figure. The Council should publish its own costed comparison.

4. How would everybody affected be heard?
Could the Council hear from the Edge of Settlement communities, the wider Bray community, Bray Parish Council and Windsor residents, while analysing their evidence separately according to the different ways in which they would be affected?

This should not become a simple numerical contest. The statutory process is concerned with community identity and interests, cohesion and effective and convenient governance. 

5. If the evidence points towards examining another boundary, can the current review respond?
If consultation evidence suggests that the existing geographical scope may not adequately reflect community identity, settlement patterns or future development, what is the formal mechanism for changing the Review Area or Terms of Reference before final recommendations are made, who has the authority to do so, and by when must that decision be taken?

That final question is particularly important.

After our proposed Full Council motion was ruled substantially the same as July’s motion, officers continued to identify the working group as an available route for considering the issue. 

It is therefore reasonable to establish precisely what that route can achieve.

Can evidence emerging through the present process lead to reconsideration of the geographical scope? If so, who decides? If not, what exactly would residents have to do to have the boundary question considered?

These are not questions that assume what the eventual boundary should be.

They are questions intended to ensure that the eventual decision is based on sufficient evidence.

Including an area in the review is not the same as putting it into Windsor

This distinction remains fundamental.

A broader CGR should not begin with the conclusion that Broom Farm, The Limes, The Willows or the newer western developments must transfer from Bray.

It should examine community identity, neighbourhood connections, existing and future population, development, governance, electoral arrangements, practical boundaries, costs and the consequences for both Windsor and Bray.

The conclusion might be that the existing boundary should remain.

It might recommend that some areas transfer.

It might identify another solution.

That is what a review is for.

Indeed, our proposed Full Council motion was explicitly drafted on that basis. It asked that the current CGR be allowed to consider whether the existing boundary should “remain unchanged or be altered, without predetermining the outcome of the Review.”

Why create today what we already know we may have to reconsider tomorrow?

Sometimes a second review is unavoidable because circumstances change after an institution has been created.

But the Windsor–Bray boundary question is already known.

We raised these Edge of Settlement communities in February, before the current Terms of Reference were approved. 

We know development is changing the western edge of Windsor.

We have indicative evidence that some residents in these communities identify strongly with Windsor.

And Government guidance requires the eventual arrangements to be tested against community identity and interests, cohesion, population, boundaries and effective and convenient governance. 

There is also time to examine the evidence: RBWM has already determined that any new Town Council cannot be established before May 2028 at the earliest. 

So perhaps the evidence will demonstrate that the existing parish boundary remains the appropriate one.

Perhaps it will demonstrate that some Edge of Settlement communities have stronger community connections with Windsor.

Perhaps the evidence on governance, cost and implementation will support one review—or two.

But obtaining that evidence before establishing the institution would allow Full Council to make that decision with the alternatives properly understood.

One review. One proper consultation. No predetermined boundary. One Windsor.

“One Windsor” does not presume where the eventual boundary should lie.

It means looking at Windsor as a whole community rather than beginning and ending with an administrative line without testing whether it continues to make sense.

Ask residents whose homes might change parish about their community identity and connections.

Ask the wider Bray community about the implications for Bray.

Ask Windsor residents.

Hear from Bray Parish Council and other interested organisations.

Examine community identity, cohesion, governance, population and future development.

Compare the costs and consequences of doing this once with doing it twice.

Then test the reasonable alternatives against the statutory criteria.

That would not predetermine whether Broom Farm, The Limes, The Willows or Windsor’s growing western communities should become part of a future Windsor Town Council.

It would give the affected communities the opportunity to help answer that question before the new institution—and the boundary intended to serve it—are established.

Find out how our attempts to get ALL Windsorians included in a Windsor Town Council have been ignored and frustrated by Politicians and officers at RBWM in our blog, “Who Belongs in Windsor? Why Aren’t All Windsor’s Edge Communities Being Asked?” .