Maidenhead town centre – our local town, have you ever been there?  It’s got a great location close to the M4 and many major business hubs such as Reading, Slough and West London.  Many businesses have realised this and have chosen to base themselves here including “3”, Adobe, Johnson & Johnson, Weight Watchers, Hitachi, Mattel, Allied Bakeries and Marc Daniels (us!).  There’s been talk of a major redevelopment for a while to improve the look and feel of the town centre and there are finally some promising signs which are very exciting to see.  Cranes are now dominating the skyline and a large section of the town is a massive building site which begs the question, what’s in store?

• The Landing – this will be a redevelopment of the Broadway part of Maidenhead into a hub of 24,400 m sq. of offices space worthy of company headquarters, 4,300 m sq. of retail units and restaurants and 212 apartments. Additional car parking will also be created there to accommodate the increased cars that the redevelopment will attract.
• Chapel Arches – water from the River Thames will be diverted into the town centre to create a new waterside destination containing 240 apartments plus 2,800 m sq. of shops, restaurants and offices. A new footbridge over York Stream will be built.
• Crossrail in 2019 will perhaps be the most exciting change to hit us, as it will allow passengers alighting at Maidenhead to reach Canary Wharf on a direct train in just 55 minutes – currently, the same journey takes 1 hr 30 with changes. London will become much more accessible from Maidenhead opening up career opportunities for many in the City (Liverpool Street will take 48 mins rather than 1 hr 20 mins) and the West End (Tottenham Court Road will take 43 mins rather than 1 hr 10 mins).
• Stafferton Way Link Road – many of us have sat in long traffic jams due to the building of this link road, but when completed in November, this should ease traffic congestion in Maidenhead a lot.

Maidenhead is also starting to host events that are already starting to draw in the crowds such as:

• The High Street produce market on Thurs, Fridays and Saturdays – great if you want to buy local fresh produce and move away from supermarkets for all your groceries
• Sat 13^th June – Magna Carta 800^th Anniversary River Relay – a huge event which The Queen will be attending http://www.thamesalive.org.uk/magnacarta/default.asp
• Sat 4^th July – Independents Day in the High Street – celebrating local businesses http://www.enjoymaidenhead.com/events-and-offers/news/independent%27s-day-.aspx .
• Sat 25^th and Sun 26^th July – Maidenhead Festival family fun day with Heroes and Villains as its theme and even a beach in Maidenhead for the weekend.

We can’t wait for the changes to be completed.