Slough Borough Council commissioned an estate agent to look into selling The Curve, newly published council documents reveal.

Council leaders denied earlier this year that they planned to sell the town centre library and culture venue after more than 2,000 people signed a petition to ‘save’ it.

But newly-published council documents have revealed real estate agents Avison Young carried out a ‘soft market test’ in the summer to find out The Curve’s market value and see if there was interest in buying it.

The test found there was a ‘lack of interest’ and the new documents confirmed that ‘there are no plans for The Curve to be disposed of’. But campaigner Preston Brooker branded previous denials ‘smoke and mirrors’.

READ MORE: 'Closing The Curve’ planned by Slough Borough Council emails suggest

Mr Brooker launched the petition in May calling on council leaders to ‘reverse the decision to close The Curve’. It came after spending plans suggested Slough Borough Council would ‘explore the closure or find alternative use of The Curve’ to save £730,000.

Councillors debated the petition in September. Council leader Dexter Smith insisted in the debate that the council had not made a decision on The Curve’s future.

He told councillors: “There were no such proposals to make a saving by closing The Curve and that remains the case – there are no such plans”.

But he also said The Curve costs £900,000 a year to run – and that the council ‘simply don’t have that sort of money’.

READ MORE: ‘No plans’ to close The Curve says Slough Borough Council leader

Now the new documents suggest that although the council hadn’t decided to close the building, it was looking into whether it could be sold.

They say: “Avison & Young carried out a soft market test across multiple sectors during the summer of 2024 to understand interest and establish market value for the Curve building.”

They add that that test ‘highlighted the lack of interest or land value that could be realised by disposal’ of the building.

And they say the debt related to the building outweighs the amount it could be sold for, meaning any sale ‘would have a negative impact on council finances’.

READ MORE: The Curve is ‘good for kids, studying and our mental health’

Details of the Avison & Young report, including the debt and the value of The Curve, have been kept confidential. Slough Borough Council spent some £22 million on building The Curve, which opened in 2016.

Plans now say the council is looking into other ways to make money from what it says is ‘under-utilised’ space at The Curve. It says this could involve bringing in income from ‘the private sector’ or an ‘educational partnership’.

Councillor Smith has previously said he’d like a university to run The Curve as a tenant of the council.

Mr Brooker told the Observer he thinks the new revelations show the council was going to close The Curve and ‘now they’re backtracking’. He said: “They’re just putting up a smokescreen – it was all smoke and mirrors.”

Slough Borough Council has been contacted for comment. The documents are set to be discussed by councillors on an asset disposals committee on Thursday, November 14.