A pledge to block a major housing development on Maidenhead Golf Course was dropped by council leaders because of a debt crisis, a councillor has alleged.

Councillor Kashmir Singh quit the Liberal Democrats – who control the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council – after its leaders said they couldn’t block the huge 1,500-home development.

Now he has said they backtracked from their original opposition because the council’s debt crisis means it needs the money that would be generated for the land from developer Cala Homes.

Councillor Singh told the Observer: “For the May 2023 borough elections, the Liberal Democrats ran on a manifesto that included a pledge to do everything possible to prevent development on Maidenhead Golf Course.

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“Since the election the financial position of the council has worsened considerably. I was reading report after report that stressed the need to maximise receipts from developer contributions.

“However I was reassured that we still had opportunities to save the site for a Maidenhead Great Park.”

Councillor Singh said it was then ‘a shock’ when leaders told campaigners they couldn’t block the development at a council meeting last month. He said the ‘abrupt concession of our position upset me deeply'. He said he believed Liberal Democrat leaders had known this was ‘inevitable’ for sometime without telling other councillors or residents.

More than 2,000 people signed a petition calling on the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council to stop a large new housing estate being built on the golf course.

But the council says it is locked in a legal agreement signed with the developers Cala Homes to deliver the project, signed when the council was controlled by the Conservatives.

Liberal Democrat councillor Adam Bermange – responsible for planning – said he had ‘spent countless hours’ trying to find a way out of the contract but that the council was ‘well and truly bound'.

A council officers’ report says it has received legal advice from ‘a respected KC’ that the land can’t be protected as public open space. But it also says the council’s financial position means it depends on the £105 million it expects to receive from Cala homes over the course of the development.

The council says the expectation of receiving this money had formed the basis for spending decisions over ‘several years’. It adds that this ‘led to the council incurring over £200m of debt which this deal was intended to repay’.

On top of this, the council report also points out that it had to apply to the government for ‘exceptional financial support’ in May this year.

Although the government has not yet agreed to this, such bailouts usually come on the condition that they are repaid by councils using money from property sales.

Council officers say that without the money from the Maidenhead Golf Course deal, the council would be unable to pay off its debts or a bailout, and have to go effectively bankrupt.

Councillor Bermange was unavailable for comment.