Day centres change to go ahead as decision backed

A plan to use two council-owned buildings for supported living accommodation looks set to continue after the decision was reviewed.

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.

Four RBWM councillors said they wanted further scrutiny of the decision after a £5m bid from Windsor Muslim Association (WMA) for the Oakbridge building was deemed unviable by the authority.

The building is a community asset so before the plan could move forward, the council published a notice of proposed disposal to allow any community groups to negotiate an offer for the site.

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

Gary Reeves, the chairman of the council's place and overview scrutiny panel, told its meeting on Monday that WMA's legal adviser had reserved a right to start a claim for a judicial review "subject to the outcome of the scrutiny panel if this becomes necessary".

But Kevin McDaniel, RBWM's deputy chief executive, said "due diligence" was carried out on its guarantor, which "didn't even have 25% of the offer value" in its published reserves. He said he could not recommend WMA's offer as viable to the council.

He said the council "scoured" its properties for alternative development sites but was unable to find another suitable location for the supported accommodation.

Despite the call to refer the decision for the day centres back to RBWM, the scrutiny panel voted in favour of taking no further action.