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Permanent base: the ex-post office prayer centre |
Muslims victorious in 10-year fight for community mosque
A MOSQUE has won its bid to stay open following 10 years of knock backs and hostility from neighbours.
Just six months after planning chiefs were urged to close down the prayer centre in Lancefield Street, Queen’s Park, over fears that calls to prayer broadcast from loudspeakers would shatter the peace, the mosque was given
a permanent stay of execution.
Labour councillors and a number of residents in the predominately Muslim area wrote to Westminster City Council to support the centre, which also houses a children’s study area, but the building’s location has provoked anger among nearby households.
With prayer meetings attended by an average 30 worshippers, and typically finishing at midnight, they say living next to the mosque is a nightmare.
In a letter to the planning department, a woman who lives in one of the terraced houses next to the centre said she was once approached by the mosque to sell her house with a view to its expanding. Asking to remain anonymous, she said: “How reasonable is it to allow such hours in a neighbourhood? I can’t even get to sleep. I am not aware of churches keeping such hours. It is thoughtless and insensitive of them to insist on this. We feel let down.”
In another letter to the department, resident Linda Taggert, wrote: “If the centre closes at 11.30pm it will be overrun with cars and chattering people disturbing the community up to midnight and beyond.”
Supporters of the mosque claim it has bolstered community spirit in the area, citing a reduction in anti-social behaviour and robberies since it moved to the street in 1998.
The decision, passed at a planning applications sub-committee last week, means the mosque will be open for prayers seven days a week until 10.30pm in the winter and 11.30pm during the summer. The use of speakers or amplifiers has been outlawed and a condition was imposed to ensure doors and windows are closed during 15-minute prayers times.
Since opening in the former post office, the North Westminster Muslim Cultural Association has fought doggedly to keep the mosque open. After two successive applications were thrown out, and numerous appeals scuppered, a public inquiry backed the group in 2006, saying any subsequent permission should allow later opening hours.
The fire was further stoked when the Bishop of Rochester Dr Michael Nazir-Ali called the use of speakers an attempt to impose Islam on the area when it was granted temporary permission in January.
The consent has been given the seal of approval by local Labour councillors. Labour group leader Paul Dimoldenberg said: “This is very good news for the local Muslim community and we are delighted the planning situation has been sorted out after all this time. Labour councillors have been working closely with the prayer centre management to ensure that all the important details were sorted out.”
Shamsu Miah from NWMCA said: “We care a lot about the local community and are pleased to have a permanent base.” |
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