Council and councillor dispute delays land sale

A property dispute between Slough Borough Council and one of its own councillors has disrupted the sale of council land.

The authority wants to sell a patch of grassland on Hatfield Road near the town centre.

But it had to withdraw the land from auction after Iftakhar Ahmed claimed he had right of way over it into his back garden on Merton Road.

Ahmed says he has had "exclusive access to the land" for several years but the council disputes that.

The land, opposite Hatfield multi-storey car park, was listed for sale in an online auction in April.

But the council withdrew it from sale after Ahmed applied to the Land Registry for a prescriptive easement over the land.

That would establish that he had a legal right to cross the land because he had done so openly and continuously for several years without the owner's permission.

In a statement submitted to the Land Registry, Ahmed said the land "had been used and enjoyed by myself and all other occupiers, guests and licensees of the above property" since 1979.

Documents submitted to the auctioneers also show that Ahmed tried to buy the land from Slough Borough Council in 2006, before he became a councillor.

In his request he said he had used the land while visiting a friend who owned the house on Merton Road in 1979 and had carried on using it after the buying the home himself.

Ahmed told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the land was "poorly maintained by the council" and that it had been "occasionally used by the homeless and drug dealers in the area".

The council disputes the councillor's claim to have a right of way.

It said images captured on Google Street View between 2009 and 2024 show that "during most of this 15-year period there is no gate, either pedestrian or vehicular" to the back of Ahmed's house.

A spokesperson for the council said: "Neither councillor Iftakhar Ahmed, nor any other party, has any rights of access over this council-owned land (as confirmed by documents held by HM Land Registry)."

It said that it "did not engage in any meaningful discussions" on Ahmed's 2006 request to buy the land "nor was any agreement reached".

The spokesperson said Ahmed has "again expressed an interest in buying the land" but that to do so he must take part in the auction.

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