Aldi shoppers shocked at traffic chaos in Slough amid lack of parking

Following the opening of the Farnham Road location on Thursday, October 13 residents flocked to the retail park.

Alongside the retail giant, a variety of other shops also share the car park which is thought to only worsen the current parking situation.

After visiting the new store Julie Harris said: “Finding car parking space was hard, then 20 minutes to get out of the car park. Not for me and it will stop me using the other 2 shops unless things improve.

Another Slough shopper, Chris Egan added: “Drove past it yesterday and were so many cars you couldn’t get near the store let alone go inside. So Y[ea]h I’m gonna pass on Aldi thanks.

“And even worse I shop at Pets At Home a lot and I’m not going there if it’s that busy so the other businesses are gonna suffer big time!”

Due to the location of Aldi on Farnham Road, traffic traveling to the trading estate has been affected by the backlog of customers waiting to park.

Slough Observer reader, Henry Egan explained: “Did not go to Aldi but was stuck in traffic going to and from trading estate because of people blocking up the roads queueing for parking.

“A total shambles, must have been a few backhanders to get planning permission for this.”

Another shopper said: “We all knew this would happen. Ridiculous decision to build it there.”

Residents first raised concerns over parking when planning was approved to build the store at the previous Pets At Home site.

Another option that was put forward by residents for a desired location was the old Sainsbury’s unit opposite, also on Farnham Road.

SEGRO – the owners of Slough Trading Estate – explained to the Observer why the current building was chosen.

In 2019 Pets At Home and ALDI signed a binding agreement for Pets At Home to move to a smaller unit which had been vacated by Office Outlet and which was a better size for what it needed.

This then freed up the larger former Pets At Home unit for ALDI to move into.