An unsafe car park which has been closed since Christmas is to enter the first stage of its demolition.

Work will start later this week to prepare Broadway car park in Maidenhead for demolition.

Safety hoarding will be erected around the site from Friday, November 17 in advance of scaffolding going up around the building during December.

Demolition work is then due to commence in January, after the crucial Christmas shopping period, and is expected to take around 10 weeks.

In July the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead cabinet agreed to the demolition of the car park, to remove the safety risks posed by the failed structure, while reducing the potential for anti-social behaviour and town centre blight.  

Broadway was first closed in December 2022 after a piece of ceiling fell down. Since then the council has worked with contractors and specialists to fully assess the structure and consider options and associated costs for next steps.

The 1960s concrete structure is now said to be "beyond its economic life" and in "significant structural failure", due to water ingress eroding the reinforced steel and needs to be demolished.

Ahead of the demolition the council will be reaching out to neighbouring businesses to discuss how best to minimise its impact.

At this stage no road closures will be required to install the hoarding and scaffolding.

When the safety hoarding is installed from Friday, a section of the footpath on the eastern side of King Street, by the vacant business units underneath the car park, will be temporarily unavailable for pedestrians to use. 

Safety hoarding will also be in place on the footpath on the northern side of Broadway from the junction of King Street eastwards to where the car park finishes. With the footpath on the southern side of the road also unavailable due to ongoing work on the One Maidenhead development, a footpath diversion will be in place running south along King Street and up Queen Street, before re-joining Broadway.

Councillor Geoff Hill, Cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “These enabling works are the first stage in this major project to safely demolish a large multi-storey building in a busy, built-up area, and residents and businesses will see hoarding and scaffolding go up on site in preparation from next week.

“As with any large-scale demolition project, there is likely to be some unavoidable disruption to undertake these works safely, but we’re striving to minimise this as best we can and getting things ready to start demolition after the crucial Christmas trading period.

“I would again like to thank everyone for their ongoing patience while technical assessments of Broadway have been carried out to get us to this crucial point, and for continuing to play their part for Maidenhead town centre by shopping locally and supporting traders."