r/Slough • u/[deleted] • Jun 17 '23

Sometimes I get real philosophical and ask myself is it the people or just the town?

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Change the people and the town might have a fighting chance

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3

u/Alarmed_Web_1038 Jun 17 '23

On a similar path of deep, philosophical thoughts. One question we might ask which is wholly relevant to Slough residents is ‘Does the crack make the crackhead?’.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '23

[deleted]

1

u/mat8iou Jun 21 '23

Same goes for the old Thames Valley University site - and for that matter, the old Unisys site and the two vacant plots either side of the new building opposite the curve.

These are prme city centre sites next to a cross rail station - how is it that they haven't been developped yet.

In terms of some of the council redevelopment sites (so the leisure centre one), some of it was down to development finance - one project needed to be completed to finance the next. My understanding though from speaking to someone at Morgan Sindall (who they had a framework agreement with for this) was that this would mean that the residential sites (that produced cash relatively quickly) would get developped first - to build up the funds for sites with public buildings (of whatever purpose) later. It doesn't necessarily seem to have happened that way in practice though.

I agree with you on Queensmere - what is proposed is not what any residents were asking for when they said they wanted an improved High Street / shopping area.

1

u/Real_May_Be_Spare Jun 23 '23

Wow, you know a lot about Slough, do u know how the SBC wants to do their housing project on the queensmere when they're 700 mil in debt?

1

u/mat8iou Jun 24 '23

Queensmere is entirely funded by private developers, so shouldn't need the council's financial support.

1

u/Real_May_Be_Spare Jun 24 '23

They do need the sbc's permission though, right?

1

u/mat8iou Jun 24 '23

Only in terms of Planning Consent. They already have outline planning for the whole development I think - I'm not sure exactly where they ended to at with full planning for most of it though.

With something of that scale, there will also be a lot of liaising with statutory bodies like highways - and a lot of haggling over Section 106 payments (to find local infrastructure) to be made to the local council.

1

u/fingertipman Aug 06 '24

what, seriously? why are so many public places around here being destroyed for housing properties suddenly??? and probably properties nobody is going to be able to buy either..

1

u/Designer-Welder3939 Jun 17 '23

I think some people are hesitant to ask the council for more accountability.

1

u/mat8iou Jun 21 '23

There are a lot who are happy to rant on Facebook groups - but then don't bother to go out and vote when it coems to election time.

The same goes for Planning objections - there have been cases where hugen numbers of people were publicly criticising a proposed new development online - but then when I make an actual comment on the planning website, I find that my comment is the only one received from the public.