Slough Council told to build outside borough rather on its greenbelt

Planning bosses have been eyeing to release multiple greenbelt sites within Slough to build family homes. Some of these sites include Upton Court Farm, land east of Rochfords Gardens, land east to Wexham Hospital, and possibly land south of Blenheim Road near Ditton Park.

This is because the council needs to deliver 15,460 homes in the next 15 years. It is facing a 5,000 housing shortfall as it is running out of room to build new houses.

Land south of Blenheim Road

A six-week public consultation was launched to gather views from residents on their thoughts if the council should release multiple greenbelt sites for family housing, which the borough is severely lacking.

The survey received a very low response rate of 417, two of which were from a leaflet drop, which planning policy manager Paul Stimpson believed the impact of Covid played a role in this lack of engagement.

He said it was “unsurprising” that a majority of the respondents disagreed the council should be building on Slough’s greenbelt sites. They also think there is no need for the council to build family housing at all.

Despite needing to build more homes to meet Slough’s growing population and economy, most responders said the council should not be developing within the borough at all.

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Mr Stimpson said: “We need to keep educating people. It might sound a bit harsh, but we need to keep making the case for family housing so that people will realise that we need a balanced housing market.

“Our catchphrase for Slough is to be somewhere you can work, rest, play, and stay, and one of the reasons that people can’t stay in Slough is because there aren’t enough houses and there are certainly not enough houses they are inspired to go to because all we are building are flats.”

A slight majority of the respondents believed the council should be developing outside the borough, such as in South Bucks where the council is eyeing a ‘northern expansion’ of Slough to build thousands of homes.

However, before the council can ask if it can build new homes in South Bucks’ greenfield sites, it has to leave “no stone unturned” when looking for viable sites within Slough.

Paul Stimpson, planning policy manager at Slough Borough Council

Buckinghamshire County Council does not have evidence to establish if it can accommodate its own housing needs or the unmet needs of other councils, including Slough.

Mr Stimpson said: “What we always said to them [Bucks Council] is please see Slough as part of the wider picture and expanding Slough can help solve their problems as well as our own problems.

“Rather than building in their pretty villages or areas of outstanding beauty and other places like that, a proper sensible expansion of Slough, which can meet their needs as well as our needs, we think is the best way forward.”

Mr Stimpson also dismissed the idea to build homes in Colnbrook and Poyle, which are protected under the spatial strategy to separate Slough from London, due to the possible return of the third runway at Heathrow Airport and that there a lot of warehousing developments in those areas.

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He also believed the air pollution and the flooding issues in Colnbrook and Poyle make the area not suitable for family housing.

Councillors sitting on the planning committee noted the consultation results on Wednesday, March 23. No final decision has been made as the process is in the informative stage.