14/02/2024
A Slough man has decried the ‘dilapidated’ state of the Queensmere Observatory Shopping Centre car park after a bad experience there.
A disgruntled Slough man has decried the ‘dilapidated’ state of the Queensmere Observatory Shopping Centre car park after a bad experience there.
Gordon Moffatt from Langley was ‘shocked’ when he took a trip to the centre of town, parking at the Queensmere.
He said it ‘stank of urine’ and was ‘poorly lit’ – and these were only the beginning of the problems.
The lifts were out of order and appeared to be so ‘for some time’ judging by the old taped notices on them.
“I found it quite shocking the extent to which the once quite good shopping centre is falling into disrepair,” Gordon said.
“You get disabled people, elderly people, mums and dads with pushchairs – if you’ve got a car on any level other than the ground floor, what are you supposed to do?”
Gordon then faced difficulties trying to get out of the car park, which uses automatic number plate recognition (ANPR).
The exit barrier recognised his car registration, asked for a payment but failed to accept his bank card.
Gordon says he repeatedly pressed the onscreen ‘Help’ symbol but was met with no response.
He was forced to reverse with his hazard lights on to get to another exit where the payment machine functioned properly.
This among other issues in Slough made for a poor shopping experience, Gordon said, and puts him off trying it again, instead favouring other nearby towns.
“It shocked me the sense of the dilapidation [in] Slough,” he said. “The town is falling into disrepair and Queensmere is a mirror of the town it serves.
“It’s not serving the needs of the town and the town isn’t serving the needs of the people.”
He also wondered if the car park may be in breach of legislation protecting the needs of both people with disabilities and the elderly.
Slough Borough Council said the car park’s problems are unfortunately not something it has any control over.
SBC advises anyone who feels they or someone else is being discriminated again to get advice from the Government’s Equality Advisory Support Service at www.gov.uk/equality-advisory-support-service
Gordon further wondered what was happening with the plans to revamp the Queensmere – a mass overhaul to turn it into a mixed-use scheme called ‘Slough Central.’
Developer British Land wants to eventually replace the complex with 1,600 homes, 40,000sqft of offices and new space for shops and restaurants.
“It seems to be dragging and I don’t see the improvement happening,” Gordon said.
“There should be some sort of relationship between Slough Brough Council and Queensmere to maintain a reasonable standard of operation whilst they are in business.”
Outline plans for the revamp were approved in September 2022 – but there have been issues.
In December last year, Slough councillors called for an update from British Land about the redevelopment scheme.
SBC reported that the leader of the council met with the Queensmere owners, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and impressed upon them the need to either bring the scheme forward or sell the site to someone who can advance redevelopment.
The company was told that planning consent will not be extended unless there is a clear plan to exit or move forward by the start of the New Year.
When contacted about the shopping centre’s redevelopment this week, a council spokeswoman said: “We are maintaining pressure on ADIA to either bring a scheme forward or sell the site.
“They continue to work to improve the viability of their scheme and are in dialogue with Homes England (HE) on possible support.
“We have given them a further month’s extension to allow discussion with HE to continue.”
On the car park matter, the Queensmere shopping centre’s representative was approached for comment.