I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and, insofar as any requested information constitutes environmental information, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
This request concerns Kidwell’s Park Pavilion/Café, Maidenhead, the letting process undertaken during 2023/2024, the subsequent Tenancy at Will dated 23 December 2024, and the proposed substantive lease.
1. Original café letting/tender
Please provide copies of:
- The original advertisement, Expression of Interest, tender/letting particulars and information pack used to seek an operator for Kidwell’s Park Pavilion/Café.
- All heads of terms, proposed lease terms or property particulars supplied to prospective or shortlisted operators.
- Documents specifying the proposed length of the lease, including documents referring to a lease of approximately 10 years, 15 years, or any other proposed term.
- The evaluation/scoring criteria used to assess applicants and any document recording the final decision to select the successful operator.
- The approval/decision record authorising the successful letting.
2. Proposed substantive lease
Please provide:
- All versions/drafts of the substantive lease prepared in respect of the successful operator from the date of selection to the present.
- Any heads of terms relating to that proposed lease.
- Internal correspondence, file notes, meeting notes or other records concerning the preparation, progress, delay, suspension or non-completion of that lease.
- Records identifying the date on which Legal Services were instructed to prepare the substantive lease and the subsequent progress of those instructions.
3. Tenancy at Will dated 23 December 2024
Please provide records showing:
- Why a Tenancy at Will was used pending completion of the substantive lease.
- Who authorised the Tenancy at Will on behalf of RBWM and/or the Kidwell’s Park Trust.
- Any internal approval, instruction, correspondence or file note concerning its preparation.
- The source document or Council record from which the tenant's personal address appearing in the Tenancy at Will was obtained.
- Any records showing checks undertaken to verify that address before the agreement was issued for signature.
I am particularly requesting the last two items because I believe the personal address inserted into the executed Tenancy at Will is incorrect.
4. Kidwell’s Park Trust
Please provide records showing:
- Whether the café letting and subsequent Tenancy at Will were authorised by RBWM acting as local authority, RBWM acting as trustee of Kidwell’s Park Trust, or both.
- The trustee decision/approval authorising the letting.
- Any trustee meeting minutes, resolutions, delegated authority records or officer decisions relat-ing to the café letting and proposed lease.
- Any consideration undertaken as to whether the terms of the letting were in the interests of the Kidwell’s Park Trust and consistent with the Trust's purposes.
5. Condition of the Pavilion
Please provide:
- The condition survey undertaken in or around 2021 concerning Kidwell’s Park Pavilion/Café.
- Any subsequent condition surveys, schedules of condition, repair reports or inspections pro-duced before the new operator took occupation.
- Records identifying repairs or works that RBWM/Kidwell’s Park Trust knew were required before the Tenancy at Will commenced.
- Records showing which works were intended to be undertaken by the landlord and which were intended to be undertaken by the café operator.
6. Public toilets
Please provide, for the public toilets at Kidwell’s Park Pavilion:
- Records identifying who was responsible for cleaning and maintaining the toilets immediately before the current café operator took occupation.
- The name of any contractor responsible for cleaning those toilets and the relevant con-tract/specification.
- The cost to RBWM and/or Kidwell’s Park Trust of cleaning the toilets, preferably broken down annually from 2019 to the present, where held.
- The cleaning frequency and specification required under the previous/current cleaning arrange-ments.
- Records relating to any decision or proposal to transfer responsibility for cleaning the public toi-lets to the café operator.
- Records concerning the proposal to provide approximately £100 per month/rent offset to the café operator in return for cleaning the toilets.
- Any calculation, costing, assessment or comparison used to determine that £100 figure.
- Records stating whether the café operator is expected to supply cleaning chemicals, toilet rolls or other consumables from that amount.
7. Plan and boundaries
Please provide a clear copy of the plan referred to in the Tenancy at Will showing the property edged red and the access route shown brown.
Please also provide any document establishing whether any of the public toilets form part of the property demised or occupied by the café operator.
8. Correspondence and internal records
Please provide relevant correspondence, including emails, internal messages, meeting notes and file notes, between Property, Legal Services, Parks/Environmental Services and officers acting for the Kidwell’s Park Trust concerning:
- the café letting;
- the Tenancy at Will;
- the substantive lease;
- the duration of the proposed lease;
- works/investment required at the Pavilion;
- responsibility for the public toilets; and
- delays in completing the substantive lease.
For proportionality, this part of my request may be limited to the period 1 January 2023 to the pre-sent.
I would also ask that searches include records held by relevant officers and departments in RBWM's capacity as Trustee of Kidwell’s Park Trust, and not merely records categorised as ordi-nary Council property records.
For reference, the Tenancy at Will itself identifies the landlord as “The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead as Trustee of Kidwell’s Park Trust.”