Building houses on a recreation ground will help ease a shortage of housing, Slough’s council leader has said as he approved its sale to a property developer.
Slough Borough Council’s leaders voted to sell Norway Drive Recreation Ground in Wexham Court at a cabinet meeting on Monday, 16 June.
Council leaders say the sale will mean long-delayed plans to build 24 houses there will finally be put into action.
Speaking at the meeting council leader Dexter Smith said: “We do want to see houses built there because that’s contributing to relieving the housing shortage in Slough.”
Plans to build the homes were first drawn up by the council and property developer Morgan Sindall under their joint venture Slough Urban Renewal.
The company was set up in 2012 to undertake regeneration projects such as new housing estates and leisure centres, as well as to build The Curve.
It first applied for planning permission to build the 24 homes at the recreation ground on Norway Drive in July 2018.
Members of Slough Borough Council’s planning committee voted to approve the plans that December.
But a dispute with Wexham Court Parish Council, which leased the land from the borough, delayed the development – with the parish council refusing to surrender the lease.
The parish council was also said to be ‘reluctant’ to sign a Section 106 agreement.
This sets out developers’ contributions to infrastructure and public facilities, and has to be signed before full planning permission can be granted.
The two councils finally resolved the dispute last November, with a deal that reportedly included a higher sale price and contributions for recreation facilities to be paid by the developer to the parish council.
In the meantime, however, Slough Borough Council had gone effectively bankrupt in 2021.
That meant it had to halt its regeneration plans and begin winding up Slough Urban Renewal.
Now council leaders are set to agree to sell the land to a property developer that will take on the scheme.
Speaking at the cabinet meeting Cllr Wal Chahal, responsible for council assets, said the sale would be ‘a simple, sensible step that helps us move on from past issues and focus on providing homes, better value and a positive outcome for our community’.
He added that as part of the section 106 agreement the developer would have to improve green spaces and build parking bays along Norway Drive.
Details including the buyer and the sale price have been kept confidential.
Cllr Smith said the council had marketed the site widely, attracting increased bids from a number of developers.
He said this had resulted in a bid that was above the valuations the council had obtained for the site.
Proceeds of the sale will also be shared between the council and Morgan Sindall in a ‘waterfall’ agreement which ensures both parties costs are recouped before the remainder is distributed.
Details of this agreement are also confidential although the council says it expects to receive over £80,000.
