Slough Borough Council’s leaders have voted to keep The Curve following fears that it might be sold – but it could still be ‘repurposed’ with private tenants brought in.
Fears were raised for the future of the town centre library and venue after spending plans published last year suggested the council would ‘explore the closure or find alternative use of The Curve’.
More than 2,000 people signed a petition to ‘save The Curve’ earlier this year. But council leaders voted on Monday, 19 November, to keep The Curve ‘for the foreseeable future’.
Councillor Wal Chahal, responsible for finance, said the decision showed the council had listened to residents. He said: “The residents of Slough wanted us to keep The Curve – we’re keeping The Curve. We do listen.”
Councillor Chahal also blasted reports that the council was considering its sale as ‘scaremongering’.
At an earlier meeting on Thursday, 14 November, he said: “There was a lot of scaremongering in the papers about how we were going to dispose of The Curve.
“We’re always acting in the interests of residents so I’m really pleased to see The Curve is being protected.”
He added that he’d ‘read some articles in the paper recently that we’ve gone backwards, we wanted to sell The Curve’.
An article in the Observer earlier this month reported accurately that the council had commissioned an estate agent to look into selling The Curve. The article also reported accurately that the council hadn’t made a decision to close or sell it.
A council spokesperson confirmed to the LDRS that a ‘soft market test’ by estate agent Avison Young included discovering whether there was interest market for buying the building or its land.
The test found that there was a ‘lack of interest’ in buying The Curve. And the council says the debt related to the building outweighs the amount it could be sold for, meaning any sale ‘would have a negative impact on council finances’.
Plans now say the council is looking into other ways to make money from what it says is ‘under-utilised’ space at The Curve. They say this could involve bringing in income from ‘the private sector’ or an ‘educational partnership’.
Council leader Dexter Smith said ‘repurposing’ The Curve ‘is still very much on the cards’.
He added that the council had to make sure it was getting ‘best value’ from all of its properties after going effectively bankrupt in 2021.
Councillor Chahal said the soft market test was intended to give the council an ‘indication’ of The Curve’s value, and that ‘it would have been remiss of us not to do that’.
He said: “Soft market testing puts together a report that tells you what your asset is worth. That was not an indication that we were going to sell The Curve. The Curve has always been something that we want to use for the future for our residents.”
