Slough Borough Council is the local authority for the

Borough of Slough The Borough of Slough is a Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough with Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority status in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, Southern England. The borough is centred around the town of Slough and i ...

, in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, England. Slough is a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

, having the powers of a county and district council combined. Berkshire is purely a ceremonial county, with no administrative responsibilities.

History

Slough's first local authority was the Slough Local Board, established in 1863. This became Slough Urban District Council in 1894. In 1938 the town was granted a charter of incorporation as a

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

, with the council then taking the name Slough Corporation. The municipal borough was abolished under the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

on 1 April 1974, and replaced by Slough Borough Council, when the town was also transferred from

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

to Berkshire. On 1 April 1998, Slough Borough Council became a unitary authority when

Berkshire County Council The Council of the Royal County of Berkshire, also known as the Berkshire County Council, was the top-tier local government administrative body for Berkshire from 1889 to 1998. The local authority had responsibilities for education, social servi ...

was abolished, taking over the county council's former functions.

Governance

The council has adopted the

leader and cabinet In England, local authorities are required to adopt one of three types of executive arrangements, having either an "elected mayor and cabinet", a "leader and cabinet", or a "committee system". The type of arrangement used determines how decisions ...

form of governance.

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

has held a majority of the seats on the council since 2008, and the leader of the council since 2017 has been Labour's James Swindlehurst. The post of mayor is largely ceremonial in Slough and tends to be held by a different councillor each year. The mayor for 2022-2023 is Dilbagh Parmar, a Labour councillor.

Premises

Slough Town Hall at 19 Bath Road was built in 1937 and served as the council's headquarters until 2011. The council was then temporarily based at St Martin's Place at 51 Bath Road from 2011 to 2019, holding meetings at various venues in the town whilst looking for a new home closer to the town centre. In July 2018 the council bought Observatory House at 25 Windsor Road for a reported £41.3 million and converted it to become the council's main offices and meeting place, with the first council meetings in the building being held in September 2019.

Bankruptcy (2021)

On 2 July 2021, Slough Borough Council issued a notice under Section 114 of the

Local Government Finance Act 1988 The Local Government Finance Act 1988 introduced significant reforms to local taxation in the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland). The old systems of Rates in the United Kingdom, rates were replaced by the Poll tax (Great Britain), Communit ...

, having the effect of preventing any new expenditure on non-statutory services, following serious financial problems being identified. In October 2021, the government announced plans to appoint external commissioners to help run the council after a series of reports highlighted major problems at the local authority.

Wards of Slough

The borough is divided into fifteen

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

s. Most wards elect three councillors, with the exceptions being Colnbrook with Poyle, which elects two councillors, and Foxborough, which elects one councillor. There are 42 councillors in total. The current set of wards came into force for the 2014 election, and are: *Baylis and Stoke * Britwell and Northborough *Central *

Chalvey Chalvey () is a former village, which is now a suburb of Slough, in the unitary authority of Slough in Berkshire, England. It was transferred to Berkshire from Buckinghamshire in 1974. It was first recorded in 1217 by an Old English word mea ...

Cippenham Cippenham is a suburb of Slough. Close by are the neighbouring towns and villages of Beaconsfield, Farnham Common, Burnham, Gerrards Cross, Stoke Poges, Windsor and Taplow. Originally part of the parish of Burnham in the county of Buckin ...

Green *Cippenham Meadows *

Colnbrook Colnbrook is a village in the Slough district in Berkshire, England. It lies within the historic boundaries of Buckinghamshire, and straddles two distributaries of the Colne, the Colne Brook and Wraysbury River. These two streams have their co ...

with

Poyle Poyle is a largely industrial and agricultural area in the unitary authority of Slough, in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England (of which it is the easternmost settlement). It is located west of Charing Cross in London and immediately ...

*Elliman *Farnham *Foxborough *Haymill and Lynch Hill *

Langley Langley may refer to: People * Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name * Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer * Elizabeth Langley (born 1933), Canadian perfor ...

Kederminster *Langley St Mary's * Upton *

Wexham Wexham is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the county of Buckinghamshire in southern England. It is on the boundary of the unitary authority of Borough of Slough, Slough, its post town. Wexham Park Hospital is a large hospital on the ...

Lea

References