Who is your Community Development Officer?
Danielle Welburn is your Community Development Officer for Dedworth and Clewer, and for the regeneration of Sawyers Close.
Danielle has been working in the area since 2019, and works closely with many partners, charities, and local organisations, as well as customers to look at how we can support the current and ever-changing needs of the community.
You said, we did
You said:
You were concerned that the benches in the Community Garden were rotten and unsafe.
We did:
We applied for funding through the social value fund, this was successful and provided three new picnic benches for everyone to use, the benches are made of recycled sustainable material that will last a long time. These are currently in the community garden and will be moved with the garden over to the new park area.
What's been happening in your area?
Resident partnership group
March saw the 12th meeting for the resident Partnership Group, of which there are currently 10 members.
The purpose of the group is to:
- Represent the interests of Sawyers Close residents by voicing concerns or queries that they have raised regarding the regeneration.
- Provide information from the group to signpost and provide assistance to affected residents.
- Have sight of the monthly newsletter content so that suggestions for what should be included, can be made.
- The group is briefed on upcoming events/works/communications, to be able to explain and discuss with other residents.
The Resident Partnership Group (RPG) have been running for one year and in this time, we have:
- Agreed an initial code of conduct.
- Shared the draft Customer Engagement and action plan for comment before it was agreed by the project board.
- Discussed the draft tenant offer in detail.
- Supported the project for the naming of the overall development.
We have hosted Abri managers from the following teams to enable residents to ask questions face to face about your day-to-day issues and concerns:
- Service Charge
- Home Connections
- Housing and Building Safety
The meetings are also attended by Hill, the site manager for the construction, to keep communication channels open between all.
Great British Spring Clean
We held a Great Spring Clean and Seed Swap event on 5 April - in collaboration with The Green Skills Library, Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead and Wild Windsor, to support the Keep Britain Tidy Great Spring Clean.
There were opportunities to make bird feeders using recycled materials, lots of seed swapping took place with residents, as well as recycling education games and a litter pick.
30 members of the community attended to support the day; we picked for around 45 minutes and collected five bags, plus part of a baby changing unit, broken plastics, a polystyrene box, and a hub cap. The new benches were very much enjoyed on the day too.
Youth Engagement event in July
Since October 2024 we have been working with the RBWM Youth Council and Achieving Children. We presented to the group the Sawyers Close regeneration and discussed the opportunity to engage with Abri and our young people, to help engage the voice of young people to look at the community space, while the building is taking place and to engage the wider community on what spaces they would like in the future.
The young people came up with a plan to bring in more young people, this included free pizza, free ice cream, a DJ and prizes to enjoy a day out with a friend. The group provided a letter template, a poster and an idea of costings.
The event was held on Thursday 10 July 6-8pm all the young people aged 8-19 and their siblings at Sawyers Close were invited.
The evening was a very hot one but the atmosphere was buzzing. We had families and young people attend to complete the survey and enjoy the free food and atmosphere. 23 young people completed the survey.
Responses from the survey highlighted the want for a games room and social space were most popular, and for the new development a gym was the most requested.
What did people say about the event?
“I just want to say that the teenager pizza event, was amazing... it was great to see everyone and the families all sitting together and coming together and getting the kids having a great time.“
“Years ago there used to be so much more for the kids in the Pump Room, it would be great to see more like this.”
“Thanks for the pizza and community work.”
“It’s fun living here because there’s a lot of people to play with and my friends live here.”
