Town that could join London where 'awful' high street makes people 'cry'

Slough locals have backed plans that could see the town joining London, claiming the high street is so dishevelled it makes them 'want to cry'. Slough Borough Council's cabinet confirmed at a meeting last month that it would consider merging with West London boroughs or joining the Greater London Authority.

The proposition comes as a result of the Government's Devolution White Paper, encouraging local governments to form larger unitary authorities to encourage more power for local leaders. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan told MyLondon last week that he had not spoken to the Berkshire council yet but he was not surprised they wanted to 'join the party'.

Mohammad Ali, 35, owns a cosmetics shop on Slough High Street. He said the store has been open for the last 25 years, but strains on retail have meant the six other shops his family owned across the town had to be shut down in recent years.

Mr Ali told MyLondon: "Many shops, like most other businesses, get closed. We are very old in this town, the people around this area know us."

Plans to knock down the Queensmere Observatory Shopping Centre in the town were approved by the council in September 2022, but the project has stalled since then. Mr Ali said the local high street has declined further since the council declared effective bankruptcy in July 2021, and he would like to see more investment in retail if the area joined London.

He said: "I have high hopes. If we got the same opportunities like the Londoners, then maybe it can be a good for us. Over there, at least they do something to protect their local businesses. Slough Borough Council don't do anything at all for the businesses. I don't think that is their primary priority."

Sena Iqbal, 50, has run her Pakistani dress shop in Queensmere Observatory Shopping Centre for 20 years. She said she noticed a decline in trade across Slough when big brands started pulling out of the shopping centre a decade ago.

She said: "The shopping centre is going slowly and slowly down... There is no footfall. There is no one. Slough has a big Asian community. Obviously not only Asian, all sorts of people are living here. We need shops here to do shopping, but there are none." The shop owner added: "It's very dead and upsetting. We can't do anything."

Nasreen Khan, 56, has lived in Slough her whole life and still visits the town's shopping centre. She said she is worried the area may become more expensive after joining the capital and wonders whether that could financially boost local businesses.

Ms Khan told MyLondon: "It's rubbish. People want to go away from Slough. It's gone really, really bad. All my colleagues used to come from other places to do shopping here because they had all the designer shops and everything." She added: "It's awful. You come here and you want to cry, that's how bad it is."

Magda Wojtzak, 43, has lived in England for 20 years and said the fall in trade across the town has made it difficult for locals to find jobs. She said she is a hairdresser and jobs in her trade have not been easy to come across in the UK. Ms Wojtzak told MyLondon: "For me, England is finished... In one or two months I want to move back to Poland."

She added: "There's nothing over here [in Slough]... It's near London, but not everything is the same like it is in London, even though it's only 20 minutes away."

Slough Borough Council and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the owners of the Queensmere Observatory Shopping Centre, were approached for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.

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