The newly revamped and reburbished York House - the Royal Borough's Windsor headquarters - will reopen in May after a £9million refurbishment.

York House in Sheet Street will provide new formal meeting spaces for council events and will include the Grey rooms, dedicated to the late Cllr Jesse Grey who died before the refurbishment was complete.

The rooms will host full council and cabinet meetings as well as development management panels and some overview and scrutiny panels, alternating with the Windsor Guildhall and Maidenhead Town Hall.

Councillor Samantha Rayner, the Royal Borough's lead member for culture and communities, says: “This refurbishment has brought York House up to date, as a fully integrated resident services hub that I hope many residents will enjoy using.

“The refurbishment has also allowed us to create new formal meeting spaces for our public meetings, as well as making it accessible for all.”

It will also include modern offices that can be used by local businesses due to the expansion at the site which saw a third storey added to the old building.

The council element of the building will host a dedicated resident services hub where residents will be able to discuss anything from Council Tax to reporting a missed bin collection in person with a resident advisor.

Issues that can be dealt with there there will also include benefits, green waste, reporting a missed bin collection, assisted and special waste collections, street-lighting, potholes and fly-tipping reporting, housing, parking, planning, school admissions, environmental services, licensing and blue badges.

Residents will still be able to use Windsor Library and Maidenhead Library for resident services and Maidenhead Town Hall for business services, in addition to York House.

York House will be open in May to residents from 9am until 5pm.

The improvements have proved controversial. Two years ago residents protested at the meeting where councillors gave the go-ahead, complaining the enlarged building would overshadow others in the conservation area. It was accused by one resident of 'grandiose' and too expensive.

Hopes that the police might take up a space there when the station in Windsor closed came to nothing when the offer was not taken up.