Slough council to increase sports pitch and venue hire fees in upcoming budget

Slough Borough Council is set to increase sports pitch and venue hire fees in the next financial year.

At a special cabinet meeting on Monday night at Observatory House, councillors discussed the borough’s spending plans for 2025/26.

Under the plans, the cost of hiring council-owned venues and sports pitches will increase by five per cent.

Season tickets at council-owned car parks are set to rise by 3.5 per cent with on/off street parking on the borough’s roads set to rise by the same amount.

Residents’ parking permits will remain unchanged though.

Couples planning to tie the knot at the Slough Register Office, based at The Curve, are set to face rises of almost 10 per cent.

Costs to hire the Elizabeth Room, at The Curve, for weddings and civil partnerships will rise from £195.80 to £215 Monday to Thursday, a rise of 9.81 per cent.

Similar increases are also planned at weekends with the cost of hiring the space on Fridays set to increase from £226.60 to £249.

Conservative councillor Wal Chahal, cabinet member for finance, said the increase followed a re-assessment of market rates.

He told the meeting: “This is not an exercise in profit-making, it’s about having a fair and structured system that enables us to continue delivering high-quality, financially sustainable services that meet the need of our residents.” 

Conservative cabinet member Gurcharan Manku (Con, Langley St Marys) said he had concerns over the hike in hire fees proposed for the Slough Register Office.

But he accepted fees had to rise so the council could do its duty and set a balanced budget.

Fee increases of up to 10 per cent are also planned for burials and cremations in Slough.

Cllr Chahal told the meeting the council is planning to invest £36.7million on roads, infrastructure and essential projects in Slough as part of its capital programme for 2025/26.

Council leader Dexter Smith, said: “We’ve got the biggest capital budget that the council has ever proposed. In that sense, it’s a budget for the growth of the Slough economy.”

The meeting heard the council tax collection rate in Slough was just shy of 80 per cent as of December 31.

The business rates collection rate also stood at 82.18 per cent.

Councillor Manku raised concerns over these figures but his Conservative colleague, Councillor Chahal, said they only fell slightly below the expected levels.

The council’s Section 151 officer Annabel Scholes said it was ‘difficult to articulate’ why the community is struggling to pay council tax.

She said an adjustment has been made to the council’s 2025/26 budget to reflect some of the challenges the local authority has been experiencing in council tax collection.

The meeting heard the council still has a projected overspend of more than £5.571million for the current financial year, 2024/25, due to continued pressures in areas including tackling homelessness and providing temporary accommodation.