RESIDENTS have criticised the decision of a councillor to commit his entire community improvement fund to a Faith school’s private car park.

Each Slough councillor receives £25,000 annually to spend on improvements to their ward, through the council’s Community Investment Fund (CIF). Cllr Sohail Munawar, of Elliman ward, is to spend his entire £25,000 fund on improving the Khalsa School car park, which is currently closed for renovations.

His colleague, Cllr Arvind Dhaliwal (Elliman), is also to commit a ‘substantial’ amount of his community improvement fund to the project. His son, Cllr Amarpreet Dhaliwal (Langley St Mary’s), is a governor of Khalsa School.

But some Elliman residents questioned if it was right to spend so much money on a private car park – something that will do little to improve the lives of most residents.

Trevor Allen, 66, of Montague Road, said: “They should be spending this money in the community.

“This school is not part of the community, it’s an independent faith school. I can’t just go in there and have a walk around, its private.

“When it was built in 2007, one of the conditions was that it should have a proper car park and access road.

“In 11 years, they have not done that.

“They were offered a loan by the council to do the works and do this right, but they would rather have £50,000 free of charge.

“I have nothing against the school, its a very good school.

“But they are siphoning off money not intended for this purpose.”

The director of finance for Slough Borough Council, Neil Wilcox, in a letter to Mr Allen, said that the contributions to the car park could be justified as being a benefit to the local community it helps improve traffic.

He said: “The main community benefits of the Khalsa School Car park works was that “the provision takes traffic away from the public highway and most importantly keeps the main artery to Wexham park hospital clear.”