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Fourteen councillor positions are up for grabs out Slough Borough Council’s 42 seats on May 6. Ahead of the local elections, the Tory group revealed their six key election pledges to “build back better in Slough” in their manifesto. One of their key commitments is to tackle Labour’s “impending debt crisis”, which they allege is over £700 million, by formulating a plan such as selling off council buildings to pay off around £20 million of the debt. Slough Labour were contacted on the debt. Another pledge includes continuing to oppose Labour’s “unfair” 4.99 per cen...

Cllr Madhuri Bedi at the Foxborough litter pick “I JOINED the Labour party because I believed it stood ‘for the many, not the few’. Sadly, I do not see that being played out in current leadership.” That’s what councillor Madhuri Bedi (Foxborough) said at a full Slough Borough Council meeting on the budget – as she resigned as a Labour member to become an independent councillor. At the meeting on Monday, March 8, she also scolded her former colleagues for choosing to increase council tax to the maximum this year. She said the 4.99 per cent spike will “prove too much for too...

. The ruling Labour members green-lit the 2021/22 budget, which sets out how frontline services will be funded in the next 12 months – but was met with heavy criticism from the opposing Conservatives. From April, the total council tax bill for households will be 4.99 per cent, or £70.83 for those living in Band D households (the average) – with the total Band D bill being £1,490.30 for 2021/22. This increase comprises a 1.99 per cent rise for all council services, with an additional three per cent ring-fenced for adult social care. Councillor James Swindlehurst (Lab: Cippenham G...

didn’t step in, the leader said. Last week, the Observer reported the council was in talks with the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government to seek permission for a ‘capitalisation directive’ – effectively giving them greater flexibility to use capital funds for day-to-day services. This could mean Slough Borough Council (SBC) may need to sell off some its £100 million-worth of assets in order to fill that £10 million gap in their 2021/22 budget caused by Covid-19 pressures and two one-off repayments. One of those one-off payments includes a tribunal ordering th...

voted in favour to press the Government and urge them not to cut the £20-a-week uplift in Universal Credit. A motion brought forward by the deputy leader of the council, councillor Sabia Akram (Labour: Elliman), was passed to write to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak demanding the £20 increase to Universal Credit is permanent. Cllr Akram said: “We often hear the Prime Minister saying he wants to ‘level up’ the UK – but when we judge the Government by its actions and not by its sound-bites, it’s hard to see with this regressive cut of...