Homeless people evicted in council park clean-up

Homeless people living in an overgrown park have been evicted by a council seeking to tidy up the area.

Dozens of people were found living in Stabmonk Park in Chalvey, Slough, after a fire broke out there last month.

Slough Borough Council said staff had cleared a "huge amount" of waste and relocated people living there.

But Shin Dhother, from homelessness charity Slough Outreach, said simply moving people on would not solve the problem.

Neighbours said up to 15 people were living in Stabmonk Park before the fire on 8 July.

On Monday, the council announced six homeless people living there had been rehoused, three had been moved on, and employment and housing was found for one young person in another borough.

The council also said it had rehoused five people in July following the fire, but Mr Dhother said that would not solve the problem.

"People move around," he said.

"When you get enforcement officers come around people just go to another place and it just goes on and on."

When the council took ownership of the park in 2020, it hoped to use it as green space for the planned housing development at the Montem Leisure Centre site.

But the Montem site was sold after the council went effectively bankrupt, and since then the park has become neglected and overgrown.

The council has now said it wants to bring it back into public use.

As part of that, several tones of rubbish was removed, including gas canisters and human waste.

Cl staff faced physical threats as they worked but "persevered and cleared a huge amount of waste", according to councillor Gurchuran Manku.

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