Published: Saturday, 7th February, 2009 9:00am

Castleview hit by fresh blow

by Aamina Masud

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SLOUGH Borough Council has been hit with a fresh financial blow - it will lose out on more than £2m even if it goes ahead with plans to sell off the controversial Castleview ‘ransom' strip.

A stretch of land, which developer Kelobridge needs for an access road to build 300 new homes off Upton Court Park, Slough was originally valued at £7m.

However, the developers have now withdrawn this offer due to a decline in the property market and the council has said the same land is now expected to fetch around £4.9m.

The loss of the extra revenue comes a week after council bosses revealed they need to cut £9m in the budget with a variety of savings.

Cllr James Swindlehurst, deputy leader of the borough and commissioner for neighbourhoods and renewal, placed the blame on the previous BILLD/Conservative administration, which was voted out in May of last year.

He said: "It's clearly very disappointing. BILLD knew the value of the land. An offer of around £7m was made to them and is unlikely to come round again.

"We will try and maximise whatever we can get and around £5m will certainly help with our financial situation."

The Council's cabinet is expected to vote on Monday.