Residents in Cippenham Close have been fighting a battle over the last couple of months against the will of Slough Borough Council who have seemed intent on ripping up the green in their close to pave it over for parking bays - despite residents saying there isn't a parking problem.
Allan Shaw, resident in the close, has been standing up for residents in communication with local councillors James Swindlehurst (Labour Leader of SBC), Roger Davis and local MP Tan Dhesi - but despite his and the residents lengthy attempts at trying to stop the work in the close, the council have ignored residents and forced the work to happen anyway.
The council defend their actions by saying that surveys of Google Earth indicated to them that there was a parking problem in the area. They didn't even bother to carry out a survey or consultation of local residents.
We are supporting residents in raising their concerns - helping to raise the profile of this issue through social media - and will be in contact with residents in due course to find ways of helping them further in the coming weeks and months. We must find a way to make the council realise that they simply cannot act in this way against residents, particularly in such an isolated local example such as this one.
This example however is unfortunately not just typical of the way our Labour-led council act - forcing decisions on residents against their will - but is also indicative of how Cippenham is being let down by its existing Labour councillors. Slough and Cippenham deserve much better!
Lee Pettman - Slough West Branch Campaigns Lead