Royal Borough council leader Simon Dudley has survived a 'no confidence' vote.

But there were no surprises at yesterday's Extraordinary Council Meeting.

The nine members who voted for the 'no confidence' motion - five rebel Conservatives, one Lib Dem and three Independents - had all indicated their intentions.

They were easily outvoted by 43 loyal Conservative supporters of Cllr Dudley.

Cllr Dudley's estranged former Conservative colleague Claire Stretton - now an Independent, had proposed the 'no confidence' motion.

It accused him of bringing the council and councillors into disrepute through his Twitter statements and letter to the Police Commissioner calling for tougher action again rough sleepers in Windsor.

He had certainly made news - as the presence in the Town Hall of German television, the Sun, the Press Association and a small crowd of banner waving demonstrators outside proved.

Security staff were clearly on full alert and out in force, although their presence was not needed in the end despite the crowd of about 100 that poured into the Desborough Suite area of the Town Hall - making its own noisy contribution to the debate.

The Desborough Suite had been chosen for the debate instead of the usual Council Chamber to accommodate the expected large public turn out.

Although the result was never in doubt, nobody emerged triumphant during a two and a three quarter hour debate that became increasingly angry and personal.

There was a ferocious confrontation between Dedworth Independent councillor Wisdom Da Costa and Cllr Dudley, who warned before the final vote he would be asking to see a full transcript of what Cllr Da Costa had just said about him.

Councillors were repeatedly warned by the monitoring officer not to step outside the specific boundary of the motion, frustrating opponents of Cllr Dudley who wanted to widen their criticism and leading Cllr Stretton to offer to withdraw and redraft it for a future meeting.

But the rules stopped her doing this without the agreement of fellow councillors. Cllr Dudley's supporters refused to agree - insisting that the vote be taken that night.

For full report of the meeting see this Friday's Observer.