THE state of Slough’s High Street, its children’s services and the shortage of housing all came up for discussion when townspeople met their prospective MPs on Thursday last week.

But residents who converged on St Mary’s Church in the centre of town to 'grill’ the politicians hoping to represent them were equally worried about international issues like the Arab Israeli conflict. The thorny dilemma about how far freedom of speech should be allowed to cause religious offence was also raised.

Reverend Rod Cosh, Area Dean for Burnham and Slough, chaired the event which saw four out of five of Slough’s prospective MPs represented.

The state of Slough High Street struck a chord with all the candidates when a question came up about it.

Conservative candidate Gurcharan Singh and his opponent, Slough’s sitting Labour MP Fiona Mactaggart both agreed the street needed help – favouring cutting business rates to attract new shops and services.

UKIP candidate Diana Coad did not mince her words. She said: “People don’t want to come because of the rubbish, because of fear of crime. It is like a ghost town at night.

“It is shameful the way the High Street has been allowed to deteriorate.” The recent, highly publicised failure of Slough’s children’s services worried the candidates.

Miss Mactaggart said that it was vital to encourage more people to choose social work as their profession.

Mr Singh said that someone still needed to be blamed for what had happened in Slough, while Mrs Coad said: “We have failed our children.” The shortage of affordable housing in Slough came up.

Miss Mactaggart said she wanted to see young people from Slough training as builders through proper apprenticeships, so they could make their own contribution to the town’s share of the building project.

Julian Edmonds from the Green party said: “Our voting system is not fit for purpose. It has been built for two party politics whereas we now have five, six, seven parties.” On a lighter note candidates were asked what they liked most about Slough.

Miss Mactaggart said: “Everyone is very rude about Slough. But the people of Slough don’t care. They just say 'think what you like, we are still up for it’.

Mrs Coad said: “I came her 16 years ago and I love the multi-ethnicity, the restaurants and the shops.” Freedom of speech came up. Mr Singh said that it had to be accompanied by responsibility.

“I would want to see the insulting of holy books or prophets punishable by statute.” Mrs Mactaggart said that although she did not hold any faith herself she believed incitement of religious hatred should be illegal.

She said: “I believe people should live peacefully together like we do in Slough.” l Mrs Coad said UKIP would stop tuition fees for students studying subjects like science, maths and medicine. She said foreign aid would also be cut, saying: “The money is rarely seen by the poor and goes into the pockets of corrupt leaders.” l Mr Edmonds said: “The main parties want to privatise, outsource and fragment and spend £100million on renewing weapons of mass destruction.” He warned their lack of interest in green issues would end up rendering some of the world uninhabitable, adding: “Then we will know the meaning of mass migration.” l Miss Mactaggart said that Labour would build 200,000 homes every year and establish a government that enabled people to succeed.

l Mr Singh said that during five years in power the Conservatives had already created two million jobs and were planning to relieve people on the minimum wage from the tax burden altogether.

Thomas McCann, who is standing in Slough for the Liberal Democrats, did not attend.