There will be a Referendum on the Maidenhead Neighbourhood Plan on Thursday 19th March 2026.
What Is the Maidenhead Neighbourhood Plan?
The Maidenhead Neighbourhood Plan is intended to shape how planning applications are interpreted in order to improve the look and feel of the town until 2039.
It was written by the Maidenhead Neighbourhood Forum. This is a group of around 70 non-political volunteers. The Neighbourhood Plan has not been written by the council or politicians.
Should you vote in the Referendum? YES
The Maidenhead Neighbourhood Plan adds local rules and refinements to the existing Borough Local Plan, which applies to the whole of Windsor & Maidenhead. If adopted, the Neighbourhood Plan will carry equal legal weight when planning inspectors make decisions about planning applications. It will only apply to seven central Maidenhead wards
The current planning framework is set by the National Planning Policy Framework and the Windsor & Maidenhead Borough Local Plan. If there was no Neighbourhood Plan, these will continue to be the primary rule-books for the town. The Neighbourhood Plan at least introduces some additional Maidenhead-specific considerations, to take into account the character of town’s central neighbourhoods. It adds detail and fills policy gaps where the National Framework and borough-wide Local Plan are silent.
What Would be the Key Impacts of Voting “Yes”?
The Key impacts include:
Building Design Standards: Whereas the current guidelines are vague and open to interpretation by developers and planners. The Neighbourhood Plan introduces a “Maidenhead Design Code” and sets measurable thresholds for space, requires retaining trees, hedges, walls, and boundaries, and sets explicit design criteria covering architectural style and detailing, materials and rooflines. It gives the council stronger grounds to reject “out of character” developments in the suburbs or “low quality” high-rise blocks that have been widely criticized in the town centre.
Density and Scale of Development: The current Borough Plan supports optimising land use and high-density development. The Neighbourhood Plan places more emphasis on restraint and protecting character. This could influence decision outcomes in certain cases.
Parking: The Borough Plan sets limits for parking across the whole Borough. The Neighbourhood Plan emphasises adequate parking provision in character areas.
Local Heritage Listing: The Neighbourhood Plan offers greater protection of the town’s historic assets beyond conservation areas and listed buildings (helping to prevent “brutal demolitions”).
Family Housing: The plan calls for a greater proportion of 3 and 4-bedroom family homes to be built in the suburban areas (as opposed to one- and two-bedroom flats).
Green Protection: While the current Borough Plan does protect designated open space, the Neighbourhood Plan designates additional specific Local Green Spaces (like Boyn Grove Park and North Town Moor) for protection and prioritizes the Maidenhead Waterway as a public amenity.
Climate Action: the Plan sets higher standards for better insulated homes to be built and more urban greening.
Community Infrastructure Levy: The Neighbourhood Plan lists community priorities for developer contributions, such as improving cycling/walking routes and biodiversity.
Building Height: The Neighbourhood Plan states that buildings will be no higher than certain limits. For most of the town centre this is up to 5 storeys. For outside the centre, buildings should be low-rise. The default maximum would be 2 storeys and anything above 4 storeys would be considered a “tall building”.
What Would be the Key Impacts of Voting “No”?
The status quo would remain. As stated above, planning decisions would be based just on the National Planning Policy Framework and the Windsor & Maidenhead Borough Plan, which do not take into account local Maidenhead considerations and character.
What are the Seven Wards to which it Applies?
The Plan only applies to seven wards in the centre of Maidenhead: Belmont, Boyn Hill, Furze Platt, Oldfield, Pinkneys Green, Riverside, and St Mary’s.
There are other Neighbourhood Plans for parishes including Bray and Cookham.
What are the Limitations of the Maidenhead Neighbourhood Plan?
There is an argument that the Neighbourhood Plan does not go far enough. There have been many complaints about over-development and the construction of high-rise blocks of flats which are out of character with the traditional look and feel of the town. But the Neighbourhood Plan cannot override the National Planning Policy Framework or the Windsor & Maidenhead Borough Local Plan.
The neighbourhood Plan accepts the current Borough Local Plan target that 7900 new homes should be built in the period 2020–2030. This corresponds to
- 600 between 2021 and 2023
- 1400 per year between 2024 and 2026
- 775 per year between 2026 and 2030
The national government has re-calculated local housing needs, increasing targets for the borough by over 50%. Yet despite the visible increase in construction in the area, the actual number of properties completed is below the Borough Local Plan targets. So, there are more housing developments to come, regardless of the Neighbourhood Plan.
With regards to building height, the Plan accepts that there can be higher intensity buildings in the town centre. In one zone, the maximum height permitted is 16 storeys, with some other zones being 10 storeys.
How Was the Maidenhead Neighbourhood Plan Developed?
A group of residents concerned about the development of the town came together around 2020 and asked the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead council for permission to produce a community-led plan to accompany the Borough Local Plan. 80 volunteers signed up as members and a further 450 as supporters. The group was co-chaired by Andrew Ingram. Initially the council’s head of planning objected, but eventually, in December 2022 approval was given for the Neighbourhood Forum to be designated. Through community meetings, a large number of ideas were generated. These were grouped into six policy areas, each with a working group: biodiversity, climate, housing, built heritage, design and ‘getting around’. The Forum called on research input from two commercial consultancies: Aecom (regarding Design, and Housing Needs) and Bioregional (regarding Net Zero Policy). The policies were put out to consultation amongst the public, then to the RBWM council, then to an external Examiner. The final stage of development is the Referendum.
Find Out More About the Maidenhead Neighbourhood Plan
To find out more about the Maidenhead Neighbourhood Plan go to the website.
The Borough Local Plan (with high resolution maps) which was adopted in February 2022.
The Borough Local Plan (with low resolution maps)
The views expressed in this post are those of the author, not necessarily the Reform UK Maidenhead branch.