SLOUGH’S council leader has reignited a 'feud' between the borough and Bucks for  'historically ignoring the borough's housing need'.

Cllr James Swindlehurst (Lab: Cippenham Green) went on a rant at Thursday’s sub-committee on asset disposals after they agreed to recommend to cabinet to sell off Lavender Farm.

The site was bought in 1966 with the hopes to develop it into residential homes but because parts of it are in Buckinghamshire’s jurisdiction, it required talks which fell through.

Before the Buckinghamshire Council absorbed all the district authorities, a planning inspectorate refused the now scrapped Chiltern and South Bucks Council’s local plan, which outlined new housing developments in the area, in 2020 for ‘failing to cooperate’ with Slough Borough Council.

READ MORE: Buckinghamshire Council refuses Slough's unmet housing need

Slough wanted to create a north-east expansion of the borough to meet their unmet housing need and have raised this issue to South Bucks as far as 2016 but was ignored.

Cllr Swindlehurst said: “Bucks’ attitude to releasing land for housebuilding is that they don’t have much hunger for it, they don’t really care about the housing need in the south of the county, and they never had.

“In some ways, we were almost better off when they were Chiltern and South Bucks Council in that sense because at least they understood the local need that exists in the south of the county.

“They have about 147-something councillors covering a huge area and I just don’t think they have a proper view on what’s going on in the southern half of the new unitary, and the fact that there is an unmet housing need for the population in Burnham and other southern Buckinghamshire villages, such as Beaconsfield, and the general Slough overspill.”

READ MORE: Slough Borough Council 'objects' to South Bucks local plan

Bucks Council is currently working on their local plan to meet its social, economic, housing, and environmental needs until 2040. It is also working on three important planning guidance documents that will help inform development decisions in the former Aylesbury Vale district area, which could see about 16,000 homes built.

Cllr Swindlehurst added Bucks is “developing the living daylights” out of Aylesbury and there will be a time when the “Aylesbury tap” will run dry and will have to start developing the south of Bucks and engage with Slough.

Bucks councillor Peter Strachan (Con: Wendover, Halton & Stoke Mandeville), cabinet member for regeneration and planning said: “Buckinghamshire Council is currently progressing work on our Local Plan which will be the blueprint for future developments in Buckinghamshire for the next 20 years.

“Any decisions about the location of new developments in Buckinghamshire are therefore ultimately a matter for Buckinghamshire Council.

“We have been working with and cooperating with all of our neighbouring authorities so that we can understand the work they are doing to meet their own housing needs but I make no apology for remaining committed to protecting the Green Belt which covers a very large part of the south of the county.”