A public Inquiry, which concludes this week, has been held by the Secretary of State to determine two appeals concerning a proposal to demolish a locally listed school building within the (A30) London Road conservation area, Camberley, Surrey, and replace it with a traditional mosque (with a dome and minarets), aligned toward Mecca. The site adjoins, to the rear, the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
Muslims have been meeting in the Victorian school building since 1996, when the Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey Bengali Welfare Association bought the building after a donation from a Kuwaiti billionaire. However, the Association has claimed that the buildings no longer meet their needs and that a new facility is required, in this design, in order to attract the necessary donor funding. Planning permission had previously been granted in 2003, but has now lapsed, for the extension to the school building and the construction of a new prayer hall and new segregated facilities for men and women, classrooms etc. The current plans essentially seek these facilities again, but, in addition, a large morgue, and in a wholly different building form.
These recent plans were turned down by Surrey Heath Borough Council in March 2010 after a campaign led particularly by “Save our School” (SOS), a local action group, which delivered a petition with around 7,000 signatures requesting the refusal of the planning application. Local residents and historians are stated at the Inquiry that the town’s heritage must be protected by preserving the historic school building.
Value to local residents
SOS has argued that the school building is important to the local community, both in terms of its prominence in the local Conservation Area, positioned as it is on the London Road (A30), but also as a link to the past, as several generations of some families have attended the school.
Elements non-essential to Muslim practice
SOS has called an Islamic scholar as expert witness, Dr Taj Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford and Imam of the Oxford Islamic Congregation. Dr Hargey has given evidence that the dome and minarets are not required aspects of Islam (since neither of Muhammad’s mosques in Madinah had these elements) and that the exclusion of women from the body of the prayer hall would promote a gender inequality.
Security concerns
Major General (ret’d) Tim Cross, the other expert witness, has highlighted security concerns over the proposed plans. He has drawn attention to the need for the Planning Inspector to be satisfied on the issue of risk assessment and has pointed to the absence of an independent security survey by the Government’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI). He has recommended that it would be better not to construct the two minarets, which could provide a vantage point for views of the parade ground of the Royal Military Academy.
Sources
Express: Battle to Stop 100ft Mosque at Sandhurst
BBC News: Public inquiry into Camberley mosque plans
The Guardian: Sandhurst mosque plans prompt public inquiry
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