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Residents outraged over London Colney mosque approval (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)
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Residents outraged over London Colney mosque approval
9:55pm Monday 8th February 2010
RESIDENTS of London Colney were left incensed tonight when a controversial application to site a mosque in the village was approved by a planning committee, with police officers on hand to oversee the heated meeting.
The controversial application to convert Cemex House into an Islamic centre was given the green light, despite strong opposition from residents, citing parking, traffic issues, road safety and noise as prime objections. An almost identical application was rejected by the same committee in November last year.
While members of the Muslim community celebrated their victory, tempers flared among the hoards of residents who turned out in force to hear the committee vote on the application to temporarily convert the use of the building for a period of up to three years.
As the discussion was brought to a close one resident muttered: "This is a big mistake" while another branded the decision "ridiculous". One resident who grew up in the village but did not want to be named told the Review after the meeting: "There needs to be a serious internal review of the district council. This application stinks." Another female resident claimed the people of London Colney had been trampled on.
The meeting took an unexpected course when cabinet member for planning Councillor Chris Brazier, who had opposed the previous application, opted to withdraw from the discussion after allegations he had demonstrated a personal prejudice on the matter.
St Albans Civic's Society's Peter Trevelyan acting for the applicants argued that planning officer Alan Moorhouse had been silenced on the issue for similar reasons ahead of the original application.
Members of the Bangladeshi community, who attended to hear the decision, had applied to change the use of Cemex House in Barnet Road, close to Riverside Industrial Estate, to accommodate up to 50 worshippers for three years.
Although the main prayer hall will hold 300 people, residents fear in practice there will be many more than indicated in the application and that numbers could not be controlled.
After hearing representations from both parties at tonight's plans south committee meeting, chairman Geoff Harrison used his casting vote to approve the application, prompting tears of joy from some members of the the Muslim community.
The bid follows years of failed attempts to establish a mosque in the village to serve the Muslim community, who currently congregate at the Morris Playing Fields Pavilion.
Fahim Karim, chairman of London Colney’s Islamic Centre, said: "We are very pleased, it was a fair decision, by giving us three years permission we can prove the numbers.
"We will work with the community and prove to our community that what we said in our application we mean. We will look after our community, not just the Muslim community but in the wider sense, and we will look after our neighbours.
"This means a lot to us. We have been trying for the last ten years and eventually we have three years permission granted.
"For the last ten years we have been praying in a small room every Friday. Now we can have our own place."
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Your Say YourSt Albans
dungiven, St. Albans City says...
7:56am Tue 9 Feb 10
lneedham, St Albans says...
10:27am Tue 9 Feb 10
Ed Bailey, St Albans says...
11:16am Tue 9 Feb 10
Sarah Clarke, St.Albans says...
12:16pm Tue 9 Feb 10
Let's not disguise obvious racism under the transparent veil of noise polution please...
vhou812, London Colney says...
1:22pm Tue 9 Feb 10
at the way the planning meeting for the mosque in London Colney was run. For such an official meeting
it was Amateurish to say the least.
It appears to me the meeting was very underhand indecisive in its proceedings.
The decision appears to have been decided before the meeting even took place.
Why was the application for the Mosque not differed until a replacement for Chris Brazier was found?
Who was asked to step aside for this application as he allegedly had a conflict of interest.
But was aloud to sit on the first application, and was key to getting the application refused the first time.
Why was it, that one councillor was aloud to continue speaking when the chairman was not even paying attention,
he was in conversation with another officer. He then he asked her to continue not realising she had finished her speech.
As far as I am concerned the chairman was not, and is not fit to run such a high profile and sensitive meeting,
And should consider, along with the director of planning for St Albans council, to stand down from there position.
The way the meeting was run has played into the hands of the BNP, especially with a local by-election coming up.
This is another nail in the coffin and the continuation of the gradual decline of the village.
Along with the HGV’s and Litter along the highways, London Colney has become the dumping ground for all that is not wanted.
Thanks to the St Albans councillors, they have probably devalued and made it harder for me and others to sell our
properties in Lowbell Lane and the surrounding area. Who is going to want to buy a house next to a Mosque, A muslim
who will haggle with the price until he gets it for next to nothing. As no one else is going to want to buy it.
Will I be compensated for this, Oh no! Why don’t you come down and see for yourself the area and the road?
The Councillors who passed this will still live in there lovely house, without having there life ruined by a mosque at the bottom of the road.
This planning application is supposed to be for the community, Will I be able to use this Facility? I very much doubt it
The Planning committee have all fallen into the trap and bowed to political pressure to provide suitable accommodation .
for these people and there religion, where will all this stop? Once this once Great country has been overrun?
And all other religions driven under ground.
Why put something like this, in a residential area where there are no Muslims. Why? They have now just increased the Racial tension
and upset and angered the vast majority, of fair minded hard working residents, of this area of London Colney.
This was not democracy . How can the planning committee pass an application on a second attempt, which has not had any
changes made to it, and was refused only a few months earlier.
This application is not in the interests of the Local residents, but in the interests’ of a community which live a mile away and further afield
And of the local planning authority, who are trying to be Politically correct. Well am sorry this does not wash with me, and many other
Local people.
Sarah Clarke, St.Albans says...
1:51pm Tue 9 Feb 10
Vile, unashamed racism is what is ruining this "once great" country. And for someone seemingly so proud to be English, your command of our language is pittiful.
I am sure there are many "fair minded" members of the London Colney community vhou812, but you sadly are far from one of them.
busbee, st albans says...
2:49pm Tue 9 Feb 10
Having said that, I think Cllr Brazier is a wimp. He should have voted for the application. I say this because the central planning argument is whether to make provision for any kind of use that cannot be met in full by an individual site. Demand doesn’t evaporate because you try to ‘manage’ it by insisting on perfect solutions. If it were housing demand, or refuse disposal demand, then people wouldn’t come up with such silly arguments for trying to contain it Instead, they would start indulging in nimyism. But the BNP is NOT suggesting that the demand should be satisfied in alternative settlements.
All the criticism of the BNP is totally justified. They are being hypocritical. They have an agenda which is nothing to do with planning. Calling them neo-Nazis is to flatter them. The Nazis were never such hypocrites as the BNP are.
tjb2376, says...
3:06pm Tue 9 Feb 10
vhou812, London Colney says...
8:13am Wed 10 Feb 10
as there is one 200 meters away on the other side of the river.
London Colney has enough Churches. I would also oppose to a
School on this site, or any other institution to do with Chidlren.
What ever gets put on this site, should have careful Planning
and consultation with local residents.
It is on and entrance to a busy junction , where HGV’s often
take a wrong turn and end up trying to do either a 3 point turn, or
reverse out on the main road causing mayhem.
There has been Numerous accidents, of which one has recently
taken the wall out of the property in question , and I know of
one person killed at the junction.
In an evening when I get of the Bus coming from Potters Bar
It has taken me on occasions up to 5 Mins waiting to cross the road at that point.
So yes I would oppose anything which is going to make the situation
there a high risk to safety.
The whole planning application was and is flawed, and should be
thoroughly investigated.
As with the meeting itself.
Ed Bailey, St Albans says...
9:59am Wed 10 Feb 10
busbee, st albans says...
1:13pm Wed 10 Feb 10
I'd like vhou 812 to explain why an office or a workshop will be better for pedestrians and bus-drivers than a mosque or a church.
vhou812, London Colney says...
1:35pm Wed 10 Feb 10
I did say it would need Careful planning and consultation with local residents
And the point Iam making about the bus route,
Is that it is a very busy junction already , without extra traffic being generated
by whatever establishment is put there.
The highways agency have said that the number of worshipers
on the application (Which was 50 ) would not cause a problem.
However this application was refused the first time, as the councillors
Did not believe the numbers on the application were correct, and
wanted a more detailed account submitted.
The second application was not changed in the slightest
And was only passed due to Dirty tricks, and the main opponent being removed from
the committee.
So rather than deferring the application until an new member was found for the committee
The meeting went ahead regardless.
After a 50/50 split on the voting the chairman passed it anway.
That to me is not democracy.
Snorbs74, London colney says...
2:41pm Wed 10 Feb 10
What I would love to see now is the leaders of the LC islamic centre now take the time to perhaps knock on the doors of the residents of Lowbell Lane, Waterside and the other effected residential areas and give some reasurances and put a friendly face to the mosque.
The politicians and buerocrats have made a total mess of this, it would be great if now the actual people of london colney, muslim and non muslim, got together and turned this into a success story of a mosque that was initially opposed becoming a welcome addition to the area.
Hands on Herts, St Albans says...
4:16pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Does anyone know why Brazier bottled it?
Snorbs74, London colney says...
4:28pm Wed 10 Feb 10
The worst part of all this is our so called local public servants have been exposed as incompetant, indecisive, corruptable and self serving (I feel both the local residents and the Muslim community have both been poorly treated in this matter) .. how many people that would have turned out to vote in the next week for Labour, Lib Dem or Conservative will now realise that its totally pointless .. and how many of those votes would be needed to stop the Nazi BNP gaining a seat.
Mind you what choice do we have, barely literate facists or bloated self serving mainstream politicians... great aint it!
Powertothepeople, St Albans says...
10:13pm Wed 10 Feb 10
busbee, st albans says...
3:29pm Thu 11 Feb 10
That is the only legal use that the site can revert to if the worship use is not renewed or made permanent.
Snorbs74, London colney says...
3:40pm Thu 11 Feb 10
It will be nice if the LCIC spend some money renovating the partially listed site and its grounds, its a total eyesore at the moment.
Bi_ll, London Colney says...
7:43pm Fri 12 Feb 10
Eddie Watson, London Colney says...
4:09pm Fri 19 Feb 10
Relco, says...
12:56am Tue 2 Mar 10
The mosque has been in a state of fiscal flux on ownership.
The Lib Dems have sharpened their double edged sword against the labour party and the conservative party, yet they all still play the political game with smiles.
Lib Dems want the Muslim Vote to oust Anne Main of the conservative party and it would only take 1301 (ish) votes to give them the majority they need to put in a LIB MP (possibly over all controll over st albans)
the libs may have known the mosque was not a done deal, but they lied to the muslim population to rig this vote
Beware .. the sheep in wolfs clothing everyone , where could it end.
Snorbs74, London colney says...
8:50am Tue 2 Mar 10
If one good thing has come from this its that the lib dems have shown themsevles to be scheming and willing to damage the town and village for their own gain. Before this i was a lib dem voter seeing them as a party of morals but they have lost my vote and i'd urge any potential lib dem voters to watch the video of the planning meeting avaialbe on the st albans council website and judge for themselves.
Even if the mosque was to never get built, i think the people of London Colney should rally together to get something done about the planning commitee responsible for our village as they are making decisions based on politics and personal gain rather than what is good for the village and its people.
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BillyBatford, Harpenden says...
10:22pm Mon 8 Feb 10