Major new housing developments including the Horlicks Quarter have caused dangerous parking problems, a new council report has admitted.

Slough Borough Council’s goal of encouraging people to use alternatives to cars led it to grant planning permission to new housing developments with little or no parking.

But now the council has acknowledged that these efforts have ‘not been successful’ and have led to parking issues on and near major roads.

The report says: “Over the last ten years, developers have been granted permission for residential developments with low levels of car parking provision, with nil provision permitted for residential developments in the town centre and designated shopping centres.

READ MORE: Here's where new parking restrictions will come in next

“The developments were permitted due to the council aspirations to reduce road congestion, air pollution and encourage active travel.”

It adds: “However, developers have not been successful in encouraging low levels of car ownership.”

It goes on to say that there have been on-street parking problems ‘outside developments with low levels of parking’. And it says this has meant ‘safety issues for pedestrians due to reduced pavement space and blocking of visibility splays which increases risk of accidents’.

These include on Stoke Poges Lane, which is next to the Horlicks Quarter. Other streets mentioned are Herschell Street in the town centre, Mill Street behind the train station, and Lyon’s Way, near a new development on Stoke Road.

The admission comes after residents of affordable homes at the Horlicks Quarter complained they’d been left with nowhere to park.

More than 150 apartments at The Warehouse block of flats on Memorial Avenue – designated as affordable housing – were sold without parking after opening in 2022.

The Horlicks Quarter will contain up to 1,380 homes once fully completed – but there will be just 494 parking spaces. Of those, plans recently approved at Slough Borough Council say just 25 resident parking spaces will be allocated to up to 245 affordable homes.

Developer Berkeley and social housing provider Sovereign Network Group say the Horlicks Quarter was designed to be ‘largely car-free’.

They said this vision would be supported by a private car share scheme, a bike hire station, and improved walking and cycling links to nearby Slough train station.

READ MORE: Horlicks Quarter residents say they’re left with nowhere to park

But at a planning committee in May this year councillors said there had been an increase in ‘dangerous’ and ‘inappropriate parking’ with ‘cars parked all over the place’ since the first residents moved in.

Residents of The Warehouse then told the Local Democracy Reporting Service last month that new double yellow lines and bollards had left them trying to find on-street parking even further away.

Slough Borough Council’s recognition of the parking problems comes in a new draft plan to improve air quality in the borough.

The plan says council highways officers are working on a new ‘parking strategy’ for town centre developments. It is set to be discussed by councillors on the licensing committee on Wednesday, October 30.