Town's playing fields 'out of money', says council

Salt Hill park is run by a charitable trust

A Berkshire town's playing fields are "basically out of money", a cash-strapped council has been told.

Salt Hill playing fields are run by a charitable trust owned by Slough Borough Council (SBC).

The cost of maintaining them far outweighs how much money the trust earns in income, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

As a result, the trust is on course to spend £49,150 more than it earns this year – and its savings will become overdrawn by £38,019.

John Hickson, the council's strategic financial manager, said: “Salt Hill has basically run out of money, and it actually goes into negative reserves.

“That is a significant issue and we’re going to have to work very hard to turn that one around,” he added.

Government-appointed commissioners have told the local authority it needs to scale back its subsidies to a number of trusts which run some of its parks.

These include Langley War Memorial Field and Bayliss War Memorial Garden, as well as Salt Hill playing fields.

It would mean The Salt Hill Playing Fields Trust’s costs could rise from £22,757 in the previous financial year to £65,768 in the current year ending March 2025 – including £56,000 of maintenance costs.

At a recent meeting of SBC’s trustee committee, councillors questioned why Salt Hill had not made more money from leasing out properties on its grounds.

Mr Hickson blamed long-term lease agreements with tenants and said the issue would be rectified when the contracts run out in the near future.

He said the council was also "investigating" whether it could close some of its other trusts, including the one that manages Stabmonk Park in Chalvey.

The trust and the committee will be asked to make a decision at a meeting in October, he added.