Green Road Mosque Watch

URGENT: Planning meeting TONIGHT (22nd June) 18:30. You MUST attend in person to raise objections.

2011-06-22T13:42:00.004+01:00

Wednesday 22nd June, 18:30. Council Chamber, Civic Offices, Reading.

Detailed PDF covering item 13 (10/02316/FUL)

This is also covered by Get Reading:

Reading planners will be looking tonight at a new application for permission to build a mosque and an Islamic cultural centre in East Reading.The plan has been submitted by the Jamme Masjid to build on the 0.4 hectare site at Green Road.Planning officers are recommending granting permission ... (read more)

One step closer to Green Road mosque

2011-04-11T21:47:00.002+01:00

Reading Post carries an article regarding further developments:

A deal to hand over the freehold of land in East Reading for a mosque for just £1 is expected to change on Monday to a sale for £150,000.

An independent valuation of the site by the District Valuer was £375,000.

The trustees were given until March 2008 to demonstrate that they could raise funds to complete the building. The deadline was subsequently changed to September 2010, and then to September 2011.

Under the radar: planning application for Green Road Mosque resuscitated

2011-01-31T19:24:00.001Z

I have just heard that Planning Application Number 10/02316/FUL has been quietly submitted.

YOU HAVE UNTIL FEB 2nd 2011 TO REGISTER YOUR COMMENTS ON THIS APPLICATION.

This is for the FULL planning permission for the Green Road Mosque, now resurrected for it's third time. Permission expired in 18/10/2009. If no work is done by permission expiry date, a full application must be made abiding by all the normal planning laws, as if from scratch.

This is a HUGE building, and it concerns me greatly that the resident who contacted me said he has not been sent the normal "neighbour consultation" documents nor has he seen the usual planning notification notices.

In addition, "Site notice posted" and "Agent Details" are marked as "No Details".
"Environmental Assessment Required?" is marked NO.

It doesn't appear that RBC have any intention of making it easy to check this application, right down to putting the planning documents on the web upside down.

There are many documents to read through, and I've not had time to check all of them. I am concerned about some of the building being exclusively for males, and I wonder if this meets equality laws?

Here is the OCR'd text from the Design And Access Statement.

DESIGN & ACCESS STATEMENT FOR

JAMME MASJID THE NEW MOSQUE & ISLAMIC CULTURAL CENTRE GREEN ROAD, READING
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this statement is to explain the key issues on which the design for the development of this site has been prepared.

This application is for full planning permission subsequent to a permission granted in October 2007 for Reserved Matters application (application No. 07lO1045lREM), which lapsed in October 2010.

Since the approval of the Reserved Matters application, Reading Borough Council has released the lease hold of the site to the Jamme Masjid, Reading, for the construction of a purpose built mosque according to the approved outline application.

The Jamme Masjd board of trusties held several meetings with the members of the Council including the leader of the Council, Mr Andrew Cumpsty, the head of the development, Mr Bruce Tindall, head of the legal department, Mr Chris Brooks and senior planning case officer, Mr Justin Turvey in order to find a way forward after the Reserved Matters application became void in October 2010. The Jamme Masjid trusties were made aware of the urgency to submit a fresh full application and to comply with the conditions, which were attached to the lease agreement.
Further pre application consultations were held on the 11"' August 2010 and 20"“ December 2010 with Mr. Justin Turvey on the particulars of the new application and to ensure all were correct and complete.

The original outline application, which was granted in 2002, application No. 01/01109/OUT/AD dealt with several aspects of planning including the Transport Statement. This statement has been updated for this application by Bellamy Roberts, Highway & Transport Consultants and is part of this application.

The allocated site for the construction of the new mosque is located on the junction of Green Road with Wokingham Road. lt is located conveniently within the catchment areas of East Reading where the majority of the Muslim community live, currently using Alexandra Road mosque. Its close proximity to Reading University and Thames Valley University provides easy access for Muslim students.

Reading is a multi-cultural town inhabited by various groups of ethnic minorities each representing a different cuiture, tradition and religion. Therefore it makes proper sense that the town should reflect this multi- cuitural and multi-faith background in terms of its buildings and architecture.

The Muslim community in East Reading have for many years been using a converted residential property in Alexandra Road for a place of worship. The Alexandra Road Mosque has been moditied and extended several times to cater for the growing Muslim community in this part of the town. The building in terms of its space and facilities is most inadequate for its use as a mosque. The site offers limited number of car parking, which becomes unavailable during Fridays noon congregation because of the overflow of worshippers into the car park. This increases congestion on street parking in Alexandra Road, which often becomes a problem for the residents of Alexandra Road.

The new mosque would not only replace the existing mosque in Alexandra Road, which is inadequate and lacks sufficient parking, but will also provide a range of other facilities for the local community.
THE PROPOSAL

This application is for the construction of a Mosque and an Islamic Cultural Centre, which will include 3 prayer halls for a congregation of approximately 550 people, toilets and washing facilities, classrooms for religious and cultural studies for both boys and girls between the ages of tive and twelve, 2 flats for resident lmams (leading clergymen), a library, conference rooms, a shop purely for educational materials and items related to religious practice, a centre for the elderly of the community, a mortuary, an under croft car park with 113 spaces and other facilities.

The main prayer hall is located at the ground level for large congregations at noon on Fridays, which is designated for male worshippers, whilst the Floor gallery is designated for ladies. The third hall, which is located at the lower ground floor, is for smaller congregations at times other than noon on Fridays.
SITE CONTEXT AND ITS SURROUNDINGS

The site is adjacent to the junction between Wokingham Road and Green Road and currentiy encompasses 2 tennis courts. The site is bounded to the West by Thames Valley University’s Playing Field, to the East by a Doctors Surgery and to the North by a new residential development by George Wimpey Ltd.
The area of the site is 0.44 hectares

To the West of the tennis courts the ground level changes rapidly, forming an embankment of nearly 4m high, which is level with Green Road.

Green Road is purely a residential road whilst, Wokingham Road is dominated by a mix of residential and commercial properties. However, the site has no immediate boundaries with any existing residential or commercial properties.
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Key considerations for the design of the scheme:

« The site is in a prominent location, which is suitable for a landmark development and therefore, the design needs to take this into consideration by retiecting on the quality of appearance, appropriate scale and massing, use of suitable external materials for the building’s aesthetics and durability and incorporating attractive landscaping to enhance the streetscape.

To take into account the traditional rules of the mosque architecture by applying correct proportion and scale between different elements of the mosque.
To provide all necessary facilities, which are needed for proper functioning of the mosque.
To accommodate other possible facilities, which are required by the local community.
To make efficient use of the land and to tal-ce advantage of the land topography.
To provide all necessary measures for the site security.
To take into account in the design all possible measures for an energy efficient building.
To design the building that has its own urban character.
To design a building that is attractive, while being usable and durable at the same time.
PROPOSED BUILDING FORM SCALE
The design of the mosque is based on the traditional principles of mosques architecture. These principles are:
The correct orientation of the mosque towards Mecca.

« Incorporating a proper proportion between the mass and scale of three main elements of the mosque, the main building, the dome and the minaret.
Providing the interior with sufficient daylight.
» Arranging different facilities in the proper sequent of use.
The main access to the site is proposed from Green Road, which also serves the new George Wimpey's development.

The design takes advantage of the site topography by incorporating an under Croft car park, toilets, washing facilities, a small prayer Hall, reception, a kitchen, a mortuary and a fiat for a resident Imam (leading clergyman) in the lower section of the site whilst the main mosque building is located in the upper section, which is levelled with the access from Green Road.

The under Croft car park is accessed via a ramp and provides 113 car parking spaces including 5 disabled spaces. The requirement for the number of car parking spaces has been subject to a thorough assessment during the Outline planning application and has been approved by the Council.
A total of 98 secure bicycle storage spaces are also provided in separate locations within the site.

The main mosque building is designed to be double height with a first floor gallery for lady worshippers plus 3 girls’ classrooms, toilets and an office. The ground floor hall is mainly used by male worshipers
The pedestrian access to the mosque is mainly from two separate entrances for ladies and gents from Wokingham Road.

At the point of the pedestrian entrance to the mosque off-loading is restricted and a dropoff zone has been provided in the under croft car park.

A separate 3-storey building, which is linked to the main building, provides additional facilities such as a shop, a crèche, an office, toilets and a flat for the second resident Imam at the ground floor, an elderly persons’ community room, a conference room and toilets on the ist floor and a library, boys' classroom plus toilets on the 2"“ floor.

All levels both in the main building and the linked building including the under croft car park are served by a lift suitable for disabled persons. A second disabled lift also serves the ladies’ gallery.

The flat roof above the under croft car park is designed as a terrace in front of the grand entrance to the mosque giving a presence to the mosque in the landscape.
APPEARANCE

The mosque main building is designed to appear as a 3-storey building. It will be clad with white granite stone also incorporating large sections of glazing, which will add transparency and help in reducing the impact of the mass.

The dome above the main building will have the appearance of a tiled door in blue colour. The dome shape is a soft shape, usually pleasant to the eye and less intrusive than other geometric shapes. The blue colour of the dome would blend to the sky, which will help further in reducing the impact of the overall mass of the building.

The minaret is usually the tallest element of a mosque. Minarets, traditionally, serve two purposes. lts primary use is to call worshipers to attend the mosque and at the same time it makes the presence of the mosque visible in the surrounding area. The height of a minaret is usually shorter for the district mosques and substantially talier for the main city mosques.

We have articulated the height of the minaret to look proportionate with the main mass of the building including the dome. The proposed minaret is not intended to be used for inviting worshipers and no use of loud speakers is intended for this purpose.
ACCESS
The application site is accessed by vehicles from Green Road and by pedestrians from Wokingham Road.
The site is well connected by public transport, pedestrian and cycle routes to Reading town centre and other parts of Reading.

The majority of people who will attend the mosque are local to this area and will walk or cycle to the mosque. Others from various parts of Reading can either make use of regular public transport on Wokingham Road or drive to the mosque, where ample car parking spaces are available.

ACCESS FOR THE DISABLED

Access for the disabled has been accommodated within the design sufficient to comply with ‘Access to and Use of Buildings’, Part M of the Building Regulations.
The building is served by 2 lifts providing access for disabled to all levels and parts of the complex.

All doors’ clear opening are designed to be greater than 800mm, doors to disabled toilets and showers open outwards and will have minimum 300mm clearance on the handle side.
All electric fixtures will be between 450mm and 1200mm from the floor.
Disabled toilets and showers will be tilted with support and grab rails.

There are 5 parking spaces designated for disabled users with a 3.3m width, which are marked on the plan.
SECTION 106 AGREEMENT

The Jamme Masjid board of trusties agree to enter a section 106 agreement with the council and will provide details of their solicitor whenever it is required.

Permission Expires: the end of the (Green) Road?

2009-11-23T12:37:00.000Z

Well well well.. how time flies:

I spoke to Justin Turvey, planning case office, who said that the planning had expired, and work may not start until planning had been resubmitted.

I then spoke to someone else to confirm that no work had started, and that no Building Control application had been submitted, so any work starting after Oct 2009 would be illegal.

Finally, I spoke to Bruce Tindall, head of land development, to ask what would happen to the land now. Here's where it gets cloudy - in a cabinet meeting on 17th March 2008 it says:

The Trustees should be given a period of four years to raise the funding and build the new Mosque – within the legal implications of the 2004 report this was stated as being 4 years from the date of the Cabinet decision. It is considered that this should be amended to read 4 years from the date of signing the lease or 28th March 2008 whichever is the earlier. The Trustees are not able to raise finance until a lease has been signed.
d. If the Trustees were unable to fund and build the project within the four-year period, the Council could then offer the site to other groups for religious/community uses; obligation in Lease to practically complete the Mosque. If not practically completed within 4 years then the Council can forfeit the Lease.
e. A lease to be granted for a period of 125 years at a nil premium. The lease to contain obligations to fund and build the Mosque within four years and to ensure that the Mosque was open to all members of the public; appropriate wording included in new lease to be granted.

I then did a little checking around - this does NOT over-ride the planning expiration issue.

So, unless I and everyone I spoke to at Reading Borough Council are very much mistaken, for the Green Road Mosque to proceed would need another full planning enquiry and consultation, along with associated fees and public consultation.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the building plans would need changing, unless of course regulations, road layout etc had changed since the original planning consent was given.

Your comments on this post are welcome.

Work begins to finish Oxford Road Mosque - concerns remain

2009-05-28T17:23:00.001+01:00

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

2009-05-19T18:07:00.001+01:00

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

2008-07-03T20:05:00.001+01:00

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

2008-06-18T21:50:00.001+01:00

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?

2008-05-03T11:00:00.001+01:00

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?

2008-04-10T22:47:00.002+01:00

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?

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

2008-04-09T10:35:00.000+01:00

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%).

Planning files for 06/00798/VARIAT available

2008-04-08T20:07:00.002+01:00

Thanks to the commenter in the post below, we now have some further information and clarification through planning application 06/00798/VARIAT.

It is available directly from the RBC website here or for those with Macs/Linux/whatever, here is a direct download of a 7Mb zip file containing all the relevant files.

We'll be poring through these over the next couple of days - I can see a couple of unresolved differences regarding the public use of the building and traffic density, but I need to look in more depth before commenting further.

The minaret

2008-04-08T16:51:00.004+01:00

We've had a question about the minaret:

Will the Call to Prayer be broadcast in the traditional Middle Eastern manner? I recall someone requesting this a few years ago, and I am not sure what the outcome was.

From document 00033154.pdf (Design and access statement)

6.4 "The proposed minaret is not intended to be used for inviting worshipers and no use of loud speakers is intended for this purpose"

However, as The Independent reports:

Oxford Central Mosque said it would apply to the city council for permission to broadcast the call to prayer from loudspeakers in the minaret in a newly built mosque, three times a day. The sound is familiar to anyone who has visited any part of the Muslim world, but in Britain it is rare, even in those cities with a high concentration of Muslims.

Some people might think that it would add a beautiful new sound to the already rich cultural diversity of the nation's premier university town, but that is not a view shared by people living within earshot of the minaret, who face having their lunchtimes, early afternoons and early evenings punctuated by the sound of the muezzin calling "hasten to prayer".

The new mosque, in Manzil Way, east Oxford, is still under construction, and will not be finished until the end of the year.

Muslims are summoned to prayer five times a day: at dawn, at midday, in mid-afternoon, just after sunset, and at night about two hours after sunset.

"The call to prayer is a sound many people find menacing. It's redolent of things they don't want to think about. It's also a form of preaching. It will destroy the cohesion of a very well integrated community."

Opponents of the call to prayer believe they have a natural ally in the Bishop of Rochester, the Right Rev Nazir Ali, who has not commented directly on the Oxford row, but who alleged in a newspaper article this month that parts of Britain were being turned into "no-go" areas for non-Muslims.

He said: "Attempts have been made to impose an 'Islamic' character on certain areas, for example, by insisting on artificial amplification for the Adhan, the call to prayer. Such amplification was, of course, unknown throughout most of history and its use raises all sorts of questions about noise levels and whether non-Muslims wish to be told the creed of a particular faith five times a day on the loudspeaker."

The new Bishop of Oxford has implied that people are getting worked up for no good reason.

"I would say to anyone who has concerns about the call to prayer to relax and enjoy our community diversity and be as respectful to others as you would hope they would be to you," he told the Oxford Mail.

So, relax and enjoy the cultural diversity. Who wouldn't want to hear this 5 times a day? (4am through to midnight in the summer) (Press the play button)

We must stress again that the minaret at Green Road Mosque is not "intended for this purpose", however, if the Oxford Mosque gets permission, this may set a precedent that local councils would find hard to ignore.

This blog needs your help

2008-04-07T17:16:00.000+01:00

This site has been going for one week, and we now have 40 unique visitors per day. Not 40 page views or reloads or revisits, but 40 new people looking each day.
This may seem small fry in www terms, but for a single local issue site this suggests a great level of concern among Reading taxpayers and local residents.

There is a lot of documentation from the last 6 years in relation to the mosque and the site next to it. We all have jobs and home lives and would appreciate a little extra help.
If you have experience in planning, highways, or local government matters, or are able to spend a little time looking further into this and deciphering the mass of documents, please lend us your skills. Also looking for someone to analyze the figures with respect to the value of the land donation and the car parking arrangements/parking spaces.

Click here to email Me - or if you wish to remain anonymous, create a new email account, or simply add a comment to this post with what you found.