Cash-strapped playing field trusts could be merged

Three council-owned trusts responsible for running parks in a town could be merged due to financial issues, it has been revealed.

Salt Hill Playing Fields, Langley War Memorial Field and Bayliss War Memorial Gardens are run by charitable trusts - which are owned by Slough Borough Council.

The trusts are supposed to generate their own income and fund themselves, but the cost of maintaining the parks outweighs how much money they earn, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The council effectively has to subsidise them currently by covering some maintenance costs.

Government-appointed commissioners, sent to oversee the council after it went effectively bankrupt in 2021, said it had to end its subsidies to the trusts.

They said the trusts had to find ways of generating their own income.

Papers presented to councillors on the trustees committee, set to meet on Wednesday, suggested a plan for the trusts is still to come in a "future report", adding that one option could be to merge them all into one trust.

The papers said: "Having the three parks trusts going forward is administratively burdensome and has cost implications on all three trusts."

In July last year, councillors were told that Salt Hill Playing Fields Trust had "basically run out of money" as the costs of maintaining them far outweighed their income.

They were told that as a result, the trust was on course last year to spend £49,150 more than it earned.

The council also revealed last May that funding for Langley Memorial Ground could run out in 10 years.

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