Hidden in the woods in Slough is a troubling side of the town we rarely see. Metres from the better-trodden paths and pavements, dozens of people at a time can be found living a precarious existence in homeless camps unnoticed by passers-by.
And they might have stayed unnoticed if it wasn’t for two shocking recent incidents earlier this summer.
First came the tragic discovery of the remains of Karandeep Singh in Herschel Park on July 7 – a homeless man who’d been known to sleep there when he went missing in 2021. The people said to have found him were living just metres away under tents and tarpaulin.
In a completely separate incident, less than a day later in the early hours of July 8, a fire broke out at a larger homeless camp down the road at Stabmonk Park in Chalvey. In the aftermath, neighbours said dozens of people had been living there for months.
Many of them are still there now. And there are likely many more such camps in Slough and towns like it.
“You can go to most parks and find people sleeping rough,” Shin Dhother of homelessness charity Slough Outreach told the Observer. “It’s not just Slough – it happens everywhere – but we have got a number of camps here.”
The Observer found people still living at the camp in Stabmonk Park three days after the fire. One of them, Marek, said he’d ended up living there after his CSCS card – which allows him to work on construction sites – expired and he had no money for a new one.
He says he’s a trained electrician, knows how to fix bikes, and needs work. He’d even fashioned a makeshift cart to carry his tools.
Neighbours on nearby Seymour Road say they sometimes see vans coming early in the morning to pick up the camp’s residents. But they can also often be vulnerable to exploitation and even modern slavery in such quests for employment.
“We can see they are skilled,” says Shin, “but a lot of the time they don’t trust the people they work for. They can be promised £80 and get £20. They can have problems getting the money or not getting paid. Or they can get picked up and go missing for days.”
The camp in Stabmonk Park is fairly discrete. When the Observer visited it seemed tidy and well-kept. One resident of Seymour Road told the Observer the camp’s homeless people kept to themselves. Another neighbour said he hadn’t even known the camp was there until the fire broke out.
But those living closer had different experiences. They spoke of tense confrontations with groups of people drinking on their driveways or coming into their gardens to take water from hosepipe taps.
“We try and keep our distance from them because they are very aggressive and they drink heavily,” said one neighbour who didn’t want to be named. “We get that they’re homeless but there are foundations and places they can go to for help. Surely what they’re doing is not lawful.
“There’s so much drink, mess, and rubbish around there we’ve been complaining to the council for I don’t know how long. Only suddenly now it’s got a bit of traction because of the fire.”
Another nearby resident – who also wanted to stay anonymous – said: “A neighbour phoned me in April scared to get out of her car because a guy was rummaging about in her garden trying to get water out of the taps.
“I don’t want my boy to be in the front garden if I can’t see him, because I don’t know who the people are.”
They added: “We’ve been on to the council and the police since February but it’s taken this to happen for any action to be taken. What needs to happen – at what scale does this need to get to?”
Back in 2000 a residents’ charitable trust did up Stabmonk Park as one of hundreds of ‘millennium green’ projects funded by the Countryside Agency.
But the few volunteers couldn’t keep up the work and eventually handed it over to the council. John Sergeant, a Seymour Road resident who led the project, told the Observer: “It’s got totally overgrown. You can’t get in there now.
“I used to go around there with a mower. But when we handed it over to the council, they’ve just not touched it at all.”
Slough Borough Council says it plans to cut back overgrowth, clear waste, and install a fence to discourage people from sleeping in the park.
It's also due to receive £100,000 towards its upkeep as part of a planning permission agreement with Bellway Homes for a housing protect at the former Montem Leisure Centre site.
It says its rough sleeping team have visited regularly and offered those eligible alternative accommodation, as well as advice and support services. Others have been told to leave.
A spokesperson said: “By making the planned improvements, hopefully this will deter future rough sleepers and encourage them to seek out the support services instead. If they do return, we will have to use our eviction powers again.”
But Shin Dhotha says more could be done to house people – or else the camp’s residents will find a new hidden place to live.
“People move around,” he said. “They don’t stay in the same place. When you get enforcement officers come around people just go to another place and it just goes on and on.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here