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Welcome to Maidenhead, jewel of the Thames and I'd like to welcome PROM.
It's a great pleasure to see you all today at the launch at Market House.
Maidonians are particularly proud of being Maidenhead residents and are very proud of
their town. They're excited about the partnership for
the regeneration of Maidenhead and its plans. And I carry their wishes for these plans to
be implemented as soon as possible. Maidenhead does indeed enjoy many advantages
as a place to work and live. Good transport links with London, close proximity
to Heathrow airport, beautiful surrounding countryside, the River Thames,
we have the cache of our location within the Royal Borough, we have a low tax local council
that has gained a national reputation for innovation and efficiency.
We have excellent schools in the state and private sectors and we have and we have outstanding
national and international businesses with headquarters or major offices based in our
town center...some of who are represented here today.
The development of Crossrail is a significant element locally, not least because it will
bring a renewed focus on Maidenhead as a starting point for the new line.
Simply being on the Crossrail map will bring greater attention to Maidenhead as a business
gateway to London and highlight the strength of our transport links.
I'm hopeful that being part of Crossrail will further enhance these links.
Crossrail will bring many improvements in connectivity by ensuring for the first time
a through-route from the Thames Valley to central London and beyond Canary Wharf.
Opening up central London and the Docklands without the need to change trains will ensure
greater convenience and take some of the pressure of existing mainline services.
In 2007 we brought together under an independent chairman, Bob Dulson, the rival political
parties, interest groups -- all those who really have a passion about the town
And it's called Partnership for the Rejuvenation of Maidenhead.
Not a decision making body, but a forum to which potential ideas and a grander plan could
be socialized, And it's worked tremendously well.
We're looking to bring back water into the town.
As Theresa has mentioned the Waterways Project along the old York Stream and the flood relief
channel is being restored to be navigable again.
Much work is ongoing thanks to Richard Davenport of Maidenhead Waterways Restoration Group
and his army of supporters, With the support of the council and partners
the future is very good for creating a fantastic link from the town center back to the Thames
over the next few years. Throughout its history Maidenhead has been
a remarkably successful town, and appearances can be deceiving.
And that success has been directly linked to its location and its accessibility.
Each transport era; stagecoach, railway, air travel, motorway, introduced people, investment
and growth And now with the advent of Crossrail the level
of expectation is rising again. As we've already begun to experience.
With that in mind, PROM, was charged with finding and promoting agreed solutions to
the challenge of regenerating Maidenhead town center.
The aim -- to meet the needs of residents primarily, as well as reviving its reputation
as a destination. We set about drawing up an area action plan,
the AAP, that would A; set out clearly what the community expected, and B; enshrine those
preferred solutions in Planning and Policy. In all somewhere where they can be proud of,
a place for living, for working, for community, for arts and culture.
So in conclusion, we have a plan that meets the needs of residents who want us to rediscover
and revitalize thee towns character as a people place, a distinctive heart of the community.
The plan envisages modest growth and paves the way for commercial development, residential
and retail improvements and above all, good quality architecture and now we're looking
for people to make that happen. The Royal Borough has a thriving economy,
8,000 registered businesses in the Royal Borough, Workforce of nearly 90,000 people, a powerful
visitor economy; Windsor Castle and Legoland attract between
them over 7 million visitors -- That generates some around £400 million pounds
of spend in that local economy. Royal events of course a lot last year, Ascot
and Windsor races -- they produce about half a million visitors a year, and the exceptional
natural environment. The things that we recognized about the Maidenhead
area which appealed to us Were the thriving local economy and I think
very much what we would like to offer at Essential Living
Is something that dovetails with the office, the vibrant economic development that's taking
place and will take place in the town center over the next decade,
And we'll go hand in hand with offering our sort of consumer private rental offer which
will be of a very high standard we hope. Of course Crossrail will be a extremely exciting
bloom for the town center. But I think the other thing and I don't think it's been picked
up on yet but for developers, for people who invest in property it's extremely important
that you have a stable council with a robust and exciting vision --
We don't simply invest in areas where that doesn't exist, even if the local economy is
good; We need direction, we need clarity of vision
and that's very strong and that message has come across very strongly today, which is
great. And we selected Maidenhead as the obvious
choice for our business in 2008, and we haven't regretted it for one minute.
The next 20 years ladies and gentleman will be massive for out town.
However, we need to be prepared to meet the challenge, to embrace the changes and to grab
the opportunities -- that will be the making of our town and will benefit all of those
who come to live and work here. And we must never forget that it's a team
game, and I know we have in our community a pool of talent that can deliver on the vision.
We're very proud of the role we play here in the local community as a major employer.
I, like a lot of my colleagues do take a great deal of pride in seeing '3' signs and the
particularly large billboard that we have at Reading Station and
hopefully for those of you who come in by train or even by car round the ring road hopefully
you will have seen our nice large '3' logo in a prominent position at front of Star House.
So for us Maidenhead represents already a great home for '3', but these plans will ensure
that it remains so well into the future. We clearly have much to be proud of in the
journey so far. With the guiding light of the Area Action Plan and its six defined opportunity
areas, The maturing plans for Kings Triangle, Chapel
Arches and the Waterways, the emerging intent for Berkshire House and York Road North and
of course The impressive buildings and occupants along
this side of the town center. Now it's time to invest in Maidenhead. Quick
calculation, I think we're going to need somewhere around half a billion pounds to undertake
most of these schemes -- That's a huge amount of money but already
we can see over one hundred million pounds of investment either happening or about to
happen in Maidenhead, With many of the schemes yet to start.
So what we need to do is encourage investment in our town and get people with money to come
in and create the opportunities for the companies we want to move into our region.
It is a great time to invest in Maidenhead. The property prices I think most of us predict
are on the way up, probably increasing by more than the national average.
And to finally sum up; Maidenhead is on the crest of a wave, and I really am looking forward
to the future, thank you very much.