Work begins to finish Oxford Road Mosque - concerns remain

From Reading Chronicle:
Work begins to finish mosque

Builders are set to resume work on the Abu Bakr Masjid mosque in Oxford Road next week, more than two years after the project first began.
Progress appeared to grind to a halt last June when design consultants Archi-Structure struggled to raise funds from the local community to finish the building.

Big stink kicked up over sewage

The stench of raw sewage has been drifting across West Reading after builders working on a mosque allegedly blocked the drains.

£4 million 125 year Green Road Mosque lease signed

From Reading Post:

£4m mosque deal agreed
Mosque lease signed

Oscar Mortali, Reading Borough Council spokesman, said: “Each planning application is considered individually but the council has put in an agreement for the new mosque to be completed by March 2012.”

A date to keep an eye on there, and some lively comment at that page, too.

From Reading Chronicle:

Green Road mosque deal signed

Council documents show the new mosque must be built by March 28, 2012, or the lease will be forfeited and the land will go to another community group. The council is giving the lease on the land, worth £500,000, for free

Slow progress of ‘eyesore’ mosque

As per my earlier post, the Reading Evening Post reports:

The £3 million mosque being built in Oxford Road appears to have made little progress over the last 12 months – as these pictures of the blue steel structure show.

Work began on the three-storey Abu Bakr Masjid mosque, Islamic centre and car park, just months before the planning permission was due to expire in February last year.

But 18 months on, the structure is still nowhere near completion and the Abu Bakr Masjid website is still appealing for donations for the project.

There's a lively comments section on the story, too.

Oxford Road Mosque delays

I drove past the Oxford Road mosque today.

It looked the same as a few weeks ago.

And the same a few weeks before that.

Hmmm....and there's another £6 million sloshing around to build another mosque, right?

Was it democracy what won it?

Congratulations all! With David Sutton resoundingly given the boot, let's hope we can put this quietly to bed.

Reading Green Road Mosque - Has your voice been heard?

The purpose of this blog is to ensure that residents near the proposed Green Road/Wokingham Road mosque in Reading, Berkshire, are able to have their say on this. We strongly encourage you to speak freely and anonymously if you wish. If you have any concerns about how your money is being used, or about any aspects of the planning process and consultation, please click the "comments" link at the bottom of this post and exercise your right to free speech.

Note: We do not represent any political or religious group or campaign. However, we are more than a little surprised at the approval of this application. It seems to violate several planning laws and represents a huge gift at taxpayers expense to a minority group which provide a reliable Labour block vote, a couple of months before the local elections.

The Pakistani Community Centre plan to build the 3350 m² Reading Jamme Masjid Mosque on land at Green Road, Reading.
Here is the planning application and associated documents

(As RBC exclude many Mac users or users of "not the right browser", here is a zip file of all the related PDF and Word documents(3.6Mb, zip format))

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Are you aware that the land donated by Reading Borough Council totals a consideration that may be worth £3.4 MILLION pounds?

9.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
9.1 The transfer of the Site comprised part of a multi-land transfer package including the transfer of Hamilton Road Annex and a payment of £1.2m – a total package of circa £2.9m.

9.2 The District Valuer, in considering the overall value of the land exchanges, identified that the Site element had a value of £500K. A potential Capital Receipt will be foregone if the Site is transferred for nil consideration,

Does that not equate to a total land and development value of £2.9m + £500K = £3.4 million?

TRAFFIC:

Were you made aware that the traffic volume is estimated to be 50-60 cars per day, parking for over 113 cars expected at mid-day every friday, and a total expected capacity of 550 people.
From: 00033154.pdf

Parking: provision for 113 vehicles - the main prayer time will be lunchtime on Friday, but with vehicle activity at all times.

This means 226 extra car journey mostly past Alfred Sutton primary school on a Friday afternoon. How does that fit in with the green plan?
(Section 5.6 notes that the main hall will be used by "mail worshippers". All praise Royal Mail?)

This is an artists impression of the mosque (click for larger)

Plan

From Planning Application Committe 23/04/07

Park Ward Application Number 06/00798/VARIAT
Item 13 Page 85
Applicant: Reading Jamme Masjid
Address: Reading College And School Of Arts & Design Crescent Road Reading Berkshire RG1 5RQ
Proposal: Re-submission of planning application 05/01331/VARIAT to carry out the development approved under 01/01109/OUT (Construction of 1,2,3 and 4 storey residential accommodation comprising 74 apartments, 18 semi-detached houses (including 10 affordable) and 1 detached affordable dwelling, 90 bed student residential block (plus warden unit), and a mosque) without compliance with condition nos. 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 18, 21, 29, 37, 38, 39 and 43.
Recommendation: Permitted, subject to a Legal Agreement

http://www.reading.gov.uk/news/councilnews/NewsArticle.asp?id=SX9452-A781EB20

The new £4 million mosque would be built on land provided by Reading Borough Council on the corner of Wokingham Road and Green Road. Facilities would include a prayer house, washing facilities, smaller prayer houses, a library, conference room, class rooms for male and female students, a meeting centre for older people and parking for 115 vehicles.

Public Access:

The planning application says that there will be no access to the public:

Section 3: Does the development you propose include a building or
premises to which the public are to be admitted?

Answer: No

How does that fit with the following?

b. The Trustees have agreed that there will be open access to all members of the local community to the facility to be provided on the Site. Whilst part of the building can only be used by members of the Muslim Faith, other areas e.g. conference room, reception area, classrooms and ancillary Kitchen and toilets would be available for use by the whole local community. Members of the Muslim faith will also be using the above facilities for education and social purposes.

Were you aware of the following fact about one of the applicants?
Mosque Assault Case is dropped

A COMMUNITY leader who allegedly punched a Tory councillor in front of hundreds of worshippers in a mosque has had his case dropped after key witnesses refused to support his prosecution.

The case against Saeed Iqbal, vice chairman of Reading’s Pakistani Community Centre, collapsed at Reading Magistrates Court yesterday after several witnesses told the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) they “[did] not wish the matter to be aired in public”.

Are you aware that two other large mosque projects have been given permission, but have not progressed due to financing problems, and that according to the PCC newsletter, as of April 2007 they had a deficit of £10,000?
For example:
http://www.miraj.org/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=271

With the announcement by Abu Bakr masjid that construction work for there new purpose built mosque is to start in January 2007, its appropriate time to ask whatever happened to the South Street Mosque project? Just over 5 years ago there was great excitement in Reading Muslim community and the Borough Council after planning approval for a new purpose built mosque at the site of South Street Mosque. It was seen as a landmark building reflecting the multicultural and religious diversity in Reading.

Map of proposed site:



View Larger Map


Other links:
BBC News: New £4m mosque planned for town
Getreading - 10/03/08 - Approval for new mosque plans
Janestheone - Who bought the votes?
Mosque Assault Case is dropped

Funding response from RBC

Peter Tindall from Reading Borough Council managed to get back to me this morning (after a week)

His reply is:

The land on which the Mosque is to be built was valued at £500k. the £2.9m referred to in the report was the total value of a wider package of transactions which was undertaken between RBC and what is now Thames valley university.

The District Valuer advised the Council of the value of the site. The land has a restrictive covenant attached to it in so far as it can only be used for community purposes. For the avoidance of doubt the definition of the term community included the use for religious purposes.

The funding for the Green road Mosque will be raised by the Muslim community. However the Council will need to be satisfied that funding is available prior to agreeing the commencement of works.

As regards the question relating to 'gifts', the Council makes grants available to groups - these are documented and available on the Council's web. I enclose a copy of the VSSU Annual report for your information.
If you are seeking information on land/buildings let or sold at less than open market value, then these are either subject to cabinet or Decision Book reports - again both available on the web.

He also enclosed the VSSU Annual Report, probably one of the most eye-aching 1st year student efforts I've seen for a while. In

Out of interest, here are the top ten winners, losers, and a total of all the things you could do with £500k.


Incidentally, the VSSU Annual Report makes "interesting" reading, if only for its abundance of spelling mistakes. Not least because it lists Enviormential Issues (3%) right next to Education (5%).